June 11-13, 2007

It’s over. The 2006 Canadian Telecom Summit has come to a close and it was an overwhelming success.

Closing day coverage can be found in the Post: headlined by Nortel and BCE keynote addresses as well as Robert Depatie’s entertaining World Cup metaphor.

The Canwest wires carried the Kevin Restivo coverage of Michael Sabia’s keynote, without locking the content to subscribers.

Catherine McLean’s wrap-up in the Globe is here. Catherine also covered George Riedel’s keynote.

If there are links I am missing, please send them along!

We’re already working on the 2007 event: June 11-13. Watch for details as news breaks!

The Closer

For the second year in a row, The Canadian Telecom Summit closed with an address by CRTC Charles Dalfen.

Catherine Maclean of The Globe and Mail issued an early on-line summary:

Canada’s federal telecommunications regulator said Wednesday it is already making changes to the way it oversees the telephone industry, at a time when the federal government is calling for a greater reliance on market forces.

The complete story provides a good summary of the positions laid out by various speakers throughout the 3-day conference.

Evidence of rivalrous behaviour

One of the typical tests for loosening of regulation has been to demonstrate evidence of rivalrous behaviour.

A non-scientific measure would be the pure entertainment value from the level of banter in the jousts taking place at The Canadian Telecom Summit.

There are quantitative tests that need to be cleared, but you can put a check mark next to evidence of rivalry.

Rebuttal by Videotron

Robert Depatie delivered a passionate and insightful rebuttal to the positions that had been advanced by the telco CEOs over the past 3 days at The 2006 Canadian Telecom Summit.

A lot has been made of the 25% threshold for telco forbearance, versus 5% for cablecos. But M. Depatie pointed out that Videotron started from only 63% market penetration.

And contrary to statements that cable is deregulated, he pointed out ‘the fascination with placement on the dial.’ The point hit home when he showed a photo of an old TV dial and asked if any of us had seen a TV tuner with a dial recently.

Great speech – great positioning. We need to hear more from Videotron!

Yogi Berra

Interesting that the philosophy of Yogi Berra has been brought up twice on the third day of The 2006 Canadian Telecom Summit, by both Assistant Deputy Minister Michael Binder (“the future ain’t what it used to be”) and Nortel Chief Strategy Officer George Riedel (“when you reach a fork in the road, take it”).

Hmmm.

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