Coverage of the release last week of Canada's telecommunications policy review centered primarily on the call for a new regulatory approach that emphasizes market independence over government interference combined with a slimmed-down CRTC and list of policy priorities. My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, webpage version) focuses on the rest of the story as the report identified a series of important areas – including network neutrality, ubiquitous broadband access, privacy, spam, and consumer protection – that merit government intervention or support.
Post Tagged with: "broadband"
Telecom Policy Review Panel Calls For Net Neutrality Legal Safeguards
The Telecommunications Policy Review Panel report was released earlier this afternoon and while the immediate reaction will no doubt focus on the recommendations for a market-oriented approach with significant changes to the CRTC, I would call attention to three other recommendations gleaned from reading the executive summary (the full document is nearly 400 pages).
First, the Panel has called for a new legislative provision protecting net neutrality standards. The panel calls this an open access provision, with Recommendation 6-5 stating that:
"The Telecommunications Act should be amended to confirm the right of Canadian consumers to access publicly available Internet applications and content of their choice by means of all public telecommunications networks providing access to the Internet. This amendment should
(a) authorize the CRTC to administer and enforce these consumer access rights,
(b) take into account any reasonable technical constraints and efficiency considerations related to providing such access, and
(c) be subject to legal constraints on such access, such as those established in criminal, copyright and broadcasting laws."
(b) take into account any reasonable technical constraints and efficiency considerations related to providing such access, and
(c) be subject to legal constraints on such access, such as those established in criminal, copyright and broadcasting laws."
Consequences of Uncompetitiveness
While the stock markets were focused yesterday on comments to a conference from Google’s CFO, Rogers VP Finance was telling another investor conference about Rogers’ take on the broadband marketplace. John Gossling said: "The good news, I think, on both is that there is actually some pricing power. Unlike the […]
WiFi Visions
After several years of little movement, Industry Minister David Emerson focused on the broadband agenda during the fall, obtaining new funding for high-speed connectivity nationwide. While Emerson deserves kudos for focusing on this issue, developments elsewhere suggest that other jurisdictions are even more ambitious. Municipal wifi continues to attract attention […]
Internet Connectivity in Canada
The CRTC today released a report on the state of competition in the Canadian telecommunications market. The report contains some terrific data on the wireline, wireless, and Internet markets. Some of the report confirms the obvious – revenues from the Internet continue to grow at an impressive rate, while long […]
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