Post Tagged with: "telecom"

Digital Issues Largely Missing From Ontario Election Campaign

The Ontario election campaign kicked off last week with the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, and NDP promoting their policy platforms and quickly jumping into debates on the economy, health care and education. While the dominance of those three issues is unsurprising, my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes those Ontarians hoping for some discussion of digital policy were bound to be a bit disappointed.

The Liberal platform references the importance of jobs in the technology and media sectors, but offers little else on the digital economy. The Progressive Conservatives are the only party to make a commitment to open government – their platform follows developments in many other jurisdictions that pledge to make government data more readily available for public use – but other digital issues are ignored. The NDP makes no reference to digital policies at all.

The federal government tends to lead on digital policies, though its much-anticipated digital economy strategy is months overdue. Yet for constitutional reasons that grant the provinces jurisdiction over property and civil rights, many important issues fall to the provinces.

September 13, 2011 — 11 comments — Columns

Telecom Giants Lure Ex-Cabinet Ministers to their Boardrooms

Telecom policies, particularly Internet and wireless issues, have generated enormous public interest over the past year. Politicians have evidently taken note with all political parties expressing concern over Internet data caps, net neutrality, and the competitiveness of Canadian wireless services.

The political shift toward consumer-focused telecom concerns has unsurprisingly attracted the attention of the large incumbent telecom providers such as Bell and Telus, who have found their regulatory plans stymied by political intervention and the admission by some Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission commissioners that the current policy environment has failed to foster sufficient competition.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes the incumbent telecom providers recently served notice that they are gearing up to fight back, with Bell adding former Industry Minister Jim Prentice to its board of directors and Telus doing the same with former Public Safety Minister and Treasury Board President Stockwell Day. The addition of two prominent, recently departed Conservative cabinet ministers makes it clear that Bell and Telus recognize the increasing politicization of telecom policy.

August 16, 2011 — 12 comments — Columns

Telecom Giants Lure Ex-Cabinet Ministers to their Boardrooms

Appeared in the Toronto Star on August 14, 2011 as Telecoms Lure Ex-Ministers in Boardrooms Telecom policies, particularly Internet and wireless issues, have generated enormous public interest over the past year. Politicians have evidently taken note with all political parties expressing concern over Internet data caps, net neutrality, and the […]

August 16, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive

Nowak on Seven Steps for Telecom Reform

Peter Nowak posts seven steps to Canadian telecom reform, noting that the issues are not left or right from a political perspective.

July 6, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — News

Staying the Course: The Real Significance of the Paradis Digital Economy Speech

Christian Paradis delivered his first public speech yesterday as Industry Minister at the Canadian Telecom Summit. The media and attendees may have been hoping for a sense of the Paradis perspective on many digital economy issues (telecom, foreign ownership, spectrum, digital economy strategy, copyright), but what they got was a very slightly modified version of former Industry Minister Tony Clement’s digital economy speech from November 2010. That includes the government’s yet to be fully articulated position on telecom foreign investment and the forthcoming spectrum auction.

Several reports from the speech have focused on these telecom issues, suggesting that government is sounding “more ambiguous and indefinite” on telecom foreign investment. I don’t see it – the government has been saying the same thing for months. For example, the Globe points to this comment from Paradis calling for a:

predictable regulatory framework that ensures an appropriate balance between competition and investment

as evidence that lobbying from incumbents has had an impact on Conservative thinking.

June 1, 2011 — 3 comments — News