Latest news for The 2006 Canadian Telecom Summit is that Industry Minister Maxime Bernier has been confirmed as a Feature Keynote. He is scheduled to speak on June 14, the closing day of the 3-day schmooze fest. The Minister joins 20 other top leaders who will appear as keynote speakers. More than 50 other key personalities will appear on panels.

Early Bird rates expire April 1 – Book early!

Yesterday, TELUS announced that it was “taking a byte out of spam” with new technology being added to improve their email services.

I’m all in favour of this kind of filtering by the carriers and ISPs. There is no question that the garbage that infests parts of the internet needs to be cleaned up.

The next stage is to implement network-based blocking of truly illegal content. Strange that ISPs have no trouble blocking the merely annoying, but when it comes to truly illegal content, like child exploitation and hate, they claim that there is nothing they can do.

It doesn’t seem to make sense that the ISP community is telling users that they should have PC-based blocking tools for illegal content, but ISPs boast about their network based anti-spam tools.

Leaving blocking to users is like airlines fixing their on-board food selection, but telling passengers to bring their own parachutes if they are concerned about safety.

This ties in somewhat with the legal case being fought in the US between Google and the Justice Department over access to certain search records.

That case started with the government wanting to study the effectiveness of filtering tools to screen sexually explicit content from children.

Filtering explicit (legal) images is one thing – blocking illegal content is another matter. I am interested in solutions targeting the digital loophole currently enjoyed by smugglers of illegal content.

A variety of Private Member’s bills have been proposed across Canada seeking to ban the use of handheld cel phones while driving. Never mind that no one is also seeking specific legislation to ban cigarette smoking or coffee drinking or car pool fighting or other similar distractions. I’m not convinced the police need another law on the books – Dangerous Driving for any reason should be enough.

But in Australia, a judge took their handsfree-only laws seriously when he found a man guilty of violating Rule 300 of the Australian Road Rules:

The driver of a vehicle must not use a hand held mobile phone while the vehicle is moving, or is stationary but not parked

The man was holding his earpiece in place to keep it from falling out.

I am all in favour of people using handsfree on their cel phones. I love Bluetooth equipped cars where the system is built into the audio system.

But for everyone else, we need better-fitting, cushioned earpieces! And while I am on a rant, how about something like the ‘Clapper’ that lets your $150 Bluetooth earpiece tell you where it is hiding? Am I the only one who has lost more than one?

If you think Vonage has a bona fide argument with Shaw, the next question is how the Canadian cellular community will respond to Google offering a voice service that uses peoples’ all-you-can-eat data plans. I think Google Talk for Blackberry raises the level of debate for Network Neutrality.

Just think of the potential erosion in cellular air-time and long distance minutes.

Will these kinds of applications be subjected to ‘Acceptable Use’ policies or Quality of Service premium rates?

The same issues arise when consumers want to access other broadband services beyond the ‘walled garden’ of the mobile service provider.

Who is in control of the types of applications flying down the bitstream? Are some bits different from others? Are some mobile TV shows acceptable and others not? What about location based services?

These are all interesting questions to be raised if and when the CRTC opens a proceeding on Network Neutrality.

ITAC president Bernard Courtois used a line at one of our conferences saying that he was concerned that fighting about telephony competition was similar to creating competition for buggy whips: we’re fighting over an obsolescent product.

His words are gaining momentum as a report comes out from Technology Futures about their forecasts for transformation of the ILEC networks. In the report, TFI states that ILEC access lines in the US fell from their peak of 187 million in 2000 to 169 million at year-end 2004. The total is forecasted to fall to 71 million by 2010!

The report predicts that by 2010, about 75 percent of U.S. households will have broadband service, and about 12 percent of households will subscribe to very high-speed broadband (at least 24 Mb/s). “Since we last updated the report in 2003, a major change in perception has occurred in the industry,” Dr. Vanston said. “Before, our forecasts of distribution fiber, very high-speed broadband, VoIP, IP video and HDTV video were regarded as speculative. Now, it’s a question of how fast. That’s what this report addresses.” As an aside, I note that Cable TV has a broadband pipe into the majority of Canadian homes already, delivering HDTV, VoIP, very high speed broadband.

The research was sponsored by the Telecommunications Technology Forecasting Group (TTFG), a consortium of telephone companies comprised of AT&T;, Bell Canada, BellSouth Telecommunications, Qwest and Verizon.

I find it interesting that the report, Transforming the Local Exchange Network, won’t go so far as to predict the answers, or hints of answers, for how ILECs should upgrade. In other words, with competing visions of different fibre architectures, wireless, etc. – ILECs need to place some hefty bets on transforming their networks to what? All the report says is “the best way to do it depends on a number of factors and the ultimate winner is still unclear to the dispassionate observer.”

In the meantime, should the telcos be seeking equal access to the cable plant? What if cable companies were forced into an unbundled network elements regime? That would let the telcos use a reseller economic model to build customers and upgrade their network as a network optimization strategy. It would also buy the telephone companies some time for a winning technology solution to emerge.

Unbundling the cable loop. Now that would be a fun regulatory battle!