Last week’s CRTC award of more than a quarter billion dollars for an arctic fibre optic route included an especially relevant dissent. Long time readers know that I love reading dissenting views in CRTC decisions. Telecom Decision CRTC 2024-149 provided a remarkably precise $271,937,242 for the Government of Nunavut’s transport fibre project in Nunavut. The CRTC decision is worth examining for a number of reasons. To start with, have any of us ever seen a government estimate a project to 9 significant digits of accuracy? Second, the Broadband Fund is funded by the telecom industry, through a t ..read more

I am keeping my priorities in order, and not planning to post any new content this week. As many readers know, I have kids and grandkids who live 10 time zones apart from each other and none who live in our time zone. This summer, the family is coming home and this week we will have nearly everyone at the same time. In poker terms, it serves as a reminder that a full house always beats a pair. Mark me absent this week. Sorry. But, please be sure to look through the archives. There is some pretty good material in there! The post Keeping priorities in order appeared first on Telecom Trends ..read more

Last month, the Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University released an update to its flawed 2021 report, “Mapping Toronto’s Digital Divide” [pdf, 3.8MB]. You may recall that the 2021 report was used to support a misguided proposal for the City of Toronto to build its own fibre network in what is already one of the world’s most connected cities. The new report, “Toronto’s Digital Divide” [pdf, 12.4MB], notes that 98% of Toronto residents have internet service in their home. The new report no longer blames inadequate infrastructure; price is cited as the top reason households remain unconnected. Th ..read more

The Canadian Telecommunications Association released a new report from PwC, “Driving Canada’s productivity: The impact of the telecom sector and its role in improving productivity” [pdf, 5.6MB]. The report is the latest edition of a regular series examining the economic impact of the telecom sector in Canada. As we have been reading in the news over the past year, Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita lags other advanced economies and this is part of a decades-long trend. For example, per capita GDP cumulatively grew just 6.8% between 2007 and 2023, compared with 21.4% in the US, 19 ..read more

How should public and private sector stakeholders respond to threats to the resilience and security of digital infrastructure? That is the subject of a white paper released last month by Dr. Georg Serentschy, the former head of the Austrian telecom regulator and past chair of BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communication). Recall that building resilience in telecommunications was the subject of a workshop a few weeks ago; Dr. Serentschy discussed the paper. In my recent post, I included links to a number of other articles on network resilience. Among the highlights are a call ..read more

Online platform accountability is a significant piece of Canada’s proposed online harms legislation, Bill C-63. Much has been written about the Online Harms Act already. Observers note there are multiple distinct parts found in the legislation: Internet platform regulation; the return of Section 13 of the Canada Human Rights Act; and, perhaps the most controversial, inclusion of Criminal Code provisions. As I have written before, my own thinking has been heavily influenced by the late Alan Borovoy, a great Canadian civil rights lawyer, who used to say we should censure, not censor, those who s ..read more

Last week, I touched on the obligation to serve in a post about the challenges of providing telecom services in high cost serving areas. I thought it would be worthwhile exploring that concept a little more. In the file discussed last week, the CRTC asked TELUS a number of questions. One of them started with, “Given that TELUS is currently subject to an obligation to serve in terms of the provision of basic primary exchange service, explain how the company intends to continue to meet this obligation”. What is this obligation? Back in 2011, the CRTC issued a policy determination on precisely th ..read more

It has been a number of years since I last looked at how the CRTC deals with telecom service in high cost serving areas. In 2020, I reminded readers of an under reported consequence of the Commission’s landmark 2016 Telecom Policy determination. At that time, the CRTC created its own broadband subsidy fund – a pot of money that seems to be easier for the Commission to collect than to distribute. But, the regulator also announced, “the Commission will begin to phase out the subsidy that supports local telephone service.” The CRTC swapped out a program that provided ongoing support for all high ..read more

Earlier this month, I promised to explain why ARPU doesn’t reflect consumer bills. In that post, I explained why ARPU trends aren’t the same as pricing trends. Studies from ISED and monthly Consumer Price Index reports from Statistics Canada reveal significant lowering of mobile service prices. At the same time, disinformation campaigns have said these price reductions aren’t showing up in consumer bills. Their evidence? Quarterly financial reports from service providers include an indicator, Average Revenue per User (ARPU). Industry critics say that ARPU is a proxy for monthly consumer bills ..read more

In one of my posts last week, I mentioned “Measuring Digital Literacy Gaps Is the First Step to Closing Them“, a recent article from ITIF. We all agree on the importance of being digitally literate in today’s world. Most of us can’t imagine communicating, working, studying, being entertained, banking, shopping, or driving without using a computer, our smartphone or a tablet. Knowing how to safely use digital devices and the internet is a basic need. However, as ITIF writes “we have no clear system of measuring this type of literacy rate.” How do we know where our population stands? How do we c ..read more