Forty years ago today, I walked into Bell Canada’s main Central Office in Windsor to start my first ‘real’ job, doing traffic studies and analysis for many of the smaller switching centres between Chatham and Windsor.

The best thing about Windsor in those days was the city across the border to its north. I like to tell people that I was sentenced to a year in Windsor but got out early for ‘good behaviour’. I was transferred into London just 8 months after starting.

We were back in the Motor City area, this time on the other side of the border, just a few years later, immediately following the breakup of AT&T. Those were fun times in the US telecom market.

I was an advisor to General Motors as it designed and built its own internal communications network, linking its global facilities. A couple years later, I spent about 18 months at AT&T Bell Labs, working with some of the brightest people on the planet. I learned a lot about managing and recruiting while I was there, as I have written previously.

Three years ago, as I turned 60, I wrote some comments that continue to hold true.

My advice to my kids and grandkids can be summed up as: find a career doing something you love doing; aim to be the very best at what you do; find people who share your values to do it with; and, remember that family should always come first.

As I wrote a few years ago:

Fortunately, most of the time when I was in a corporate environment, I had bosses who shared my priorities. There are countless examples, including one of my favourite moments from a little over 25 years ago. Preparing for CRTC hearings was a stressful and intense time: in the olden days, witnesses were sworn in (or affirmed) and opposing parties had an opportunity to cross-examine. Just before the Long Distance hearings opened in 1991, we were preparing in Ottawa with our law team. My daughter’s birthday was during the week before the hearings opened and her teacher had planned a special celebration. I flew back to Toronto for a couple hours, kept a cab waiting at the school to rush me back to the airport so we could continue the hearing preparations – flying was a lot easier then. The teacher went over to my wife and said “it is so nice that your husband has the kind of job that allows him to get away for a few minutes.” I hope that my kids are as fortunate.most of the time when I was in a corporate environment, I had bosses who shared my priorities. There are countless examples, including one of my favourite moments from a little over 25 years ago. Preparing for CRTC hearings was a stressful and intense time: in the olden days, witnesses were sworn in (or affirmed) and opposing parties had an opportunity to cross-examine. Just before the Long Distance hearings opened in 1991, we were preparing in Ottawa with our law team. My daughter’s birthday was during the week before the hearings opened and her teacher had planned a special celebration. I flew back to Toronto for a couple hours, kept a cab waiting at the school to rush me back to the airport so we could continue the hearing preparations – flying was a lot easier then. The teacher went over to my wife and said “it is so nice that your husband has the kind of job that allows him to get away for a few minutes.” I hope that my kids are as fortunate.

I said earlier that the mid-80’s were a fun time in the US telecom market. In actuality, for 40 years I have found my vocation to be fun.

I continue to enjoy waking up and finding new opportunities, every single day.

I hope you are similarly blessed.

Following up on my blog post from last week, I want to highlight a complimentary webinar series that I will be hosting in the lead up to The 2020 Canadian Telecom Summit (virtual edition), taking place November 17 – 19.

The first of the webinars will be taking place next Monday, October 26.

• Webinar: Untapped Horizons For Content Providers
  Date: Monday, October 26th – 2:00pm [Eastern]
  In this session, Adam Lipper, Director of Business Development (Ecosystem) at Huawei Canada Consumer Business Group, will take the audience on a tour of the mobile app marketplace and landscape. With Huawei growing its ecosystem by launching Huawei Mobile Services and Huawei AppGallery in Canada, what are the benefits to both consumers and content providers? Adam will share notable stories of partnerships already built with local Canadian content providers. This session is available now on-demand.

• Webinar: The Urgency to Increase Connectivity
  Date: Thursday, October 29th – 2:00pm [Eastern]
  For millions of Canadians, high-speed Internet remains out of reach. In a world where the Internet has become fundamental to how we live, work and play, this puts too many Canadians at an economic and social disadvantage. In this session, Robert Backhouse, SVP & Chief Technology Officer at Huawei Technologies Canada, will explore the challenges of increasing connectivity in rural and remote areas, and emphasize the need for government to accelerate its plan to connect all Canadians to broadband Internet by 2030. This session is available now on-demand.

• Webinar: Challenges Along an Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape
  Date: Thursday, November 5th – 2:00pm
  In this session, Olivera Zatezalo, Chief Security Officer at Huawei Technologies Canada, will provide a high-level view of current cybersecurity challenges relating to both 4G LTE and emerging 5G technology. In the context of describing the strengths and vulnerabilities of any mobile network, Olivera will offer insights into how Huawei has maintained a flawless security record in Canada, its ongoing working arrangement with Canada’s security agencies, and its commitment to independent third-party testing of its products to ensure their security and integrity. This session is available now on-demand.

and wrapping up with this special session:

• Webinar: The Future of the Internet
  Date: Wednesday, November 11th – 2:00pm
  How will tomorrow’s Internet be shaped by the escalating geopolitical tensions between China and the United States? In the aftermath of the U.S. elections, Alykhan Velshi, VP, Corporate Affairs at Huawei Technologies Canada, will offer insights into what lies ahead for the most important bilateral relationship in the world – and its potential impact on technological progress. What is the legacy – and the future – of Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda? Alykhan will also explore the current state of China-Canada relations. This session is available now on-demand.

As you can likely tell, the webinar series is sponsored by Huawei.

I hope you will join me for some or all of the one hour sessions. Click here to register.

The response to the global pandemic has forced dramatic shifts in the way classes are being taught at all levels, from pre-school through university and ongoing continuing education.

Trust me.

As someone who organized live business conferences for nearly 20 years, the transition to online isn’t an easy one. From a distance, I have watched my grandson entering first grade and having to shift to learning on-line after just one week of learning in-person. His younger brother has meet-ups by Zoom with his nursery school classmates, doing arts and crafts with materials dropped off by his teacher. A friend’s daughter, who finished high school (virtually) in June, entered university last month, without the traditional frosh week festivities and restricted to meeting her classmates in cloud based chat rooms. It can’t be the same immersive university experience that her older sister (who graduated in April) enjoyed. No graduation ceremonies. Diplomas arrived in the mail.

While each of these examples demonstrate a downside to the online experience, there are positive experiences emerging. Professor Mark Lautens of the University of Toronto wrote in Monday’s Globe and Mail, “Online learning can be eye-opening for both teachers and students”:

Professors are a fortunate lot. We get to interact with some of the brightest minds of the future when they are still at their most open and receptive. Traditionally students would travel great distances to gain the best education that was open to them. Now they rearrange their lives in order to learn and interact in real-time.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a fan of online teaching and would never choose this option if given the choice. On the other hand, it might provide a way to service communities that have historically been underserviced and under-represented.

Life often gives us no choice or two less-than-ideal choices. These students have chosen to be deeply engaged, despite the inconvenience this presents. Our future may be brighter than we often imagine.

I have found time to participate in regular online luncheon learning in my community, thanks to being able to avoid commuting time to the location. More significantly, I was also able to frequently drop into a class being conducted online from San Francisco, joining my son for an hour each week. Over the summer, I participated in a couple sessions hosted by the Public Utilities Research Center at the University of Florida.

Unrestricted by the cost and time associated with travel and being able to avoid expensive accommodations, we now have the ability to participate in sessions around the world. You can pop into a class hosted in Florida in the morning and another in California for lunch.

I have started to participate in the webinar series offered by the International Telecommunications Society, gaining a global perspective on a wide variety of policy issues. The sessions are scheduled in the morning for the East Coast of North America, making it mid-afternoon in Europe and late night viewing in Asia. There was a global round-table on COVID notification apps last month, and coming up in the next few weeks, there are a couple sessions of interest to readers of this blog:

• The Future of Remote Work, October 23, 10:00am – 11:00am Eastern
• ICT Cybersecurity: Industrial Strengths and Weaknesses, October 28, 9:00am – 11:45am Eastern
• AI: International Impact on Economy and Society, November 19, 8:00am – 9:30am Eastern

And of course, The Canadian Telecom Summit (virtual edition) is coming up next month, November 17-19.

In an environment with budgetary challenges due to the economic impact of the pandemic, virtual learning provides affordable access to global leaders. In the case of the ITS webinar series, registration is free.

As Professor Lautens wrote, given the choice I would prefer to engage with my colleagues face-to-face, up close and personal. But in the meantime, take the opportunity to undertake some continuing education. You just may find there can be advantages to learning online.

In a recent article in Cartt.ca, economists Mark Meitzen and Nick Crowley of Christensen Associates said “Canadian costs are estimated to be 83% higher than average Benchmark Country costs” for carriers providing mobile services.

“The economic illusion of high wireless prices in Canada” describes the results of their analysis, comparing various factors driving carrier cost differentials in peer nations (United States, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, and Australia). The study was commissioned by TELUS.

The first phase of their work, released last February, measured differences in key mobile cost drivers between Canada and a set of benchmark countries. A newly released report on the second phase of their research determines the aggregate impact of these cost differences on prices.

The economists wrote in Cartt.ca:

As government competition authorities around the world have long recognized, it is simply not possible to draw any meaningful conclusions about the “competitiveness” of markets without benchmarking prices against the underlying costs of providing the services in question.

To do otherwise may serve to fuel populist sentiment, but it does not establish that market forces in Canada are exerting less competitive discipline than those in Benchmark countries.

In fact, our analysis may well suggest that precisely the opposite is true. Because the price differences between Canada and these benchmark countries are presumptively less than the measured cost differences, market forces are actually exerting more competitive discipline in Canada than they are in peer countries to which Canada is compared.

The studies found Canadian costs are about 83% higher than average benchmark country costs, and 34% higher than costs in the US. Assuming 75-80% of costs get passed through, these would translate into Canadian rates having roughly a 2/3 higher price differential compared with the average of the benchmark countries and having about a 1/4 price differential with the US.

According to the authors, “cost differences such as these are an essential consideration.”

The report claims that higher costs mean that mobile wireless prices in Canada could be higher than those found in benchmark countries “without raising concerns that the exercise of market power in Canadian mobile wireless markets is problematic relative to the exercise of market power in peer countries.”

As the authors warn, “Any comparison of prices that fails to take this cost dimension into account cannot be credibly relied upon to inform public policy.”

We all want lower prices for everything, but lower prices can come at a high cost.

In the face of “internet infrastructure… riddled with gaps and bottlenecks,” an article from Bloomberg last week described a shift in thinking emerging from European policy makers, where the prevailing principle had previously been “that more competition leads to better services.”

The Bloomberg article says that European telecom companies are not prepared to fund network investment due to low returns. “So governments are starting to rethink whether consumers are best served by price wars and caps on investment returns that erode the profits companies need to invest in better services.”

If you can’t trust the data in a simple Thanksgiving tweet by Statistics Canada, whose data can you trust?

Nobody.

I always look at numbers with a critical eye.

Yesterday, in a tweet taken down this morning, Canada’s official government statistical agency wished its followers a Happy Thanksgiving and included some “fun facts” about turkeys.

Only thing is, the numbers in the Tweet weren’t correct. The production figure of 165.17 tonnes is off by three orders of magnitude. It should have been 165,170 tonnes. That is an awfully big difference.

The source data appears to be from a Statistics Canada table entitled “Production, disposition and farm value of poultry meat (x 1,000)”. Apparently, that paranthetic notation in the title was missed by the graphic production team and the error slipped through whatever review processes are in place for government social media accounts.

But in the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, let’s be thankful for this teaching opportunity. It provides an opportunity to reiterate a the importance of taking a careful look at the data, before you gobble up erroneous factoids.

As I wrote a few months ago, “It’s very easy to look at a chart on social media, nod one’s head, and retweet or reply without bothering to look beyond the headline.”

Always, always, always, look at the source data, regardless of the source of the data.

Even government statistical agencies can make mistakes.