Telecom Trends

The evolution of communications regulation has been at issue recently - for telecom, broadcasting and new media. There is a camp that continues to believe that government should preserve its historical role of managing the marketplace, regardless of the availability of diverse choices in the delivery of services.

When asked about net neutrality by Charlie Angus of the NDP in the House of Commons, Industry Minister Jim Prentice replied that the government does not regulate the internet. The supplemental question asked:

Mr. Speaker, the minister's hands-off approach to hands-on interference is bad news for the development of a Canadian innovation agenda. Net neutrality is the cornerstone of an innovative economy, because it is the consumer and the innovator who need to be in the driver's seat, not Ma Bell, not Rogers, not Vidéotron. They have no business deciding what information is in the fast lane or what information is in the slow lane.

Will the minister come out of the Gestetner age and take action on the issue of net throttling?

To which the Minister replied:

Mr. Speaker, I think virtually all members of the House could agree that if anyone inhabits the Gestetner age, it is the New Democratic Party. Members of that party would carry our country into the economic backwater that they propose.

We have a well advanced Internet system in this country. It is not publicly regulated. At this point in time we will continue to leave the matter between consumers on the one hand and Internet service providers on the other.

It appears to be clear that that the government's policy for telecommunications regulation is to continue with its preference to rely on market forces to regulate. Can this be applied to broadcasting?

In a CRTC decision yesterday denying John Bitove's proposal for a new national HDTV network, there was a dissenting opinion appended from the Commission's Vice-Chair of Telecom, Len Katz. The dissent appears to call for the broadcast side of the Commission to prepare for the kinds of regulatory reform that are being experienced on the telecom side:

I question the role of the Commission in assessing the likelihood of success of a new entrant. I believe the Commission’s mandate does not include the responsibility of managing markets. New entrants bring with them different business models. Who is to say which model will be more successful? I would prefer to leave it to the marketplace. We must not confuse the Broadcasting Act’s objectives of protecting Canadian culture and identity with protecting Canadian markets… particularly where it relates to Canadian companies, built by Canadians for Canadians.

Will HDTV Networks appeal to a Cabinet that favours a reliance on market forces in place of government regulation?

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, net neutrality, John Bitove, HDTV Networks, Charlie Angus, Jim Prentice