Post Tagged with: "telecom"

The Liberal Digital Economy Strategy: Extended Edition

The Liberals gave the digital economy a prominent place in their election platform, identifying eight principles that included access to broadband for all Canadians, balanced copyright, open government, and support for an open Internet. Yesterday the party expanded on the policy by releasing Digital Canada and holding an online chat forum with Marc Garneau. The Digital Canada release reiterated many of the platform’s positions with one notable addition – a commitment to issue an open Internet directive to the CRTC. According to the Liberals, a Liberal government would “issue an Open Internet Directive to the CRTC opposing anti-competitive usage-based billing and ensure a fair, effective wholesale regime to allow smaller Internet service providers to lease broadband infrastructure at fair prices.”

Far more detail came in the online chat that I participated in as a commentator together with Open Media’s Steve Anderson. The discussion touched on a number of issues, but provided considerable detail on telecom, copyright, and privacy policy.

April 12, 2011 — 5 comments — News

Globe Calls for Opening Telecom Foreign Investment

The Globe and Mail has a masthead editorial calling on the government to drop foreign investment restrictions on telecommunications.

February 22, 2011 — 1 comment — News

CRTC Endorses CCTS

The CRTC has reaffirmed its support for the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), an agency that works to resolve disagreements between Canadians and their service providers. I wrote about the CCTS last year.

January 26, 2011 — 6 comments — News

Study Finds Canada Ranks As Most Expensive for Cellphone Plans

The New America Foundation has released a new study comparing cell phone rates in 11 countries. It finds that Canada ranks as the most expensive for packages that include voices, text, and data.

October 15, 2010 — 5 comments — News

Telecom Complaints Commissioner Remains a Relative Unknown

Hockey may be Canada’s national pastime, but my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that complaining about the major telephone and cable companies sometimes seems like it ranks a close second. Delayed Canadian launches of the latest phones, new caps on Internet bandwidth, increased monthly subscription fees, and the entry of additional marketplace competitors all regularly attract significant media attention as consumers focus on their monthly Internet and wireless bills far more intensely than most other products and services.

Notwithstanding the public interest, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services toils in relative anonymity. Established in 2007, the CCTS came as part of a deregulation bargain initiated by then-Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, who deregulated many local telephone markets and established an industry-funded telecom complaints commissioner.

August 13, 2010 — 11 comments — Columns