Telecom Trends: Cabinet tells regulator to reconsider VoIP

Friday, May 05, 2006

Cabinet tells regulator to reconsider VoIP

As we suggested earlier this week, Cabinet has sent the CRTC's VoIP decision back for reconsideration.

After careful study of the CRTC decision, and the subsequent appeals, the government believes it is in the public interest for the CRTC to reconsider its decision... This will give the CRTC the opportunity to take into account the increase in demand for VoIP services and changes to the overall regulatory environment since the original decision was announced last year.

The Minister may be sending other indications about what he will be announcing next month at The Canadian Telecom Summit.

In addition to considering the progress that VoIP has made in the market, the CRTC will be able to reconsider the decision in light of the detailed work recently completed by the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel...

In order to encourage innovation and productivity, it is imperative that regulatory measures interfere as little as possible with competitive market forces... I look forward to reviewing the CRTC's conclusions after it reconsiders this important decision.

Recall that the Telecom Policy Review panel released its final report and recommendations in March, making numerous recommendations to change regulation in the telecommunications sector, and to rely [to the extent possible] on market forces to achieve policy objectives.

Bell Canada's response was swift to applaud the decision and it simultaneously announced that it will be appealing the recent Local Forbearance Decision to Cabinet:

By directing the CRTC to review the VoIP decision in light of the TPR recommendations, the government has sent a strong signal to the Commission. We believe the Commission’s recent local forbearance decision is also out of step with the policy direction of the TPR Report. For that reason, it is our intention to appeal that decision to the federal cabinet and to seek a decision in an expedited time frame.