Policy Review Panel Recommends Major Changes in Canadian Telecom Policy
Canada’s Policy Review Panel, which completed an exhaustive review of how telecom is regulated there, said in a report released late Wed. that the nation’s regulatory framework should undergo “fundamental reform” away from heavy regulation. The panel, appointed by the Minister of Industry last April, released a report with 392 pages and 127 recommendations.
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“Although our telecommunications policy has served Canada well, we have concluded that it is now time we started to make fundamental changes,” said Chmn. Gerri Sinclair. “Otherwise, our competitiveness and productivity will lag, and Canadians will be deprived of the full benefits of continuing technological innovation and the increasing competitiveness of our telecom industry.”
A key finding is that telecom services provided by common carriers shouldn’t be presumed to be regulated except where the Canadian Radio-TV & Telecom Commission (CRTC) decides to forbear. The panel recommended phasing out unnecessary economic regulation over a 12-18-month period.
Many regulatory fights in Canada have parallels in debates before the FCC. A big battle in Canada last year concerned whether the CRTC would regulate VoIP. The commission decided it would do so only when it’s provided as local telephone service by a traditional telecom carrier. ILECs in Canada cried foul, saying the decision gave cable operators and independent VoIP providers like Vonage an unfair advantage. The panel would overturn that decision. The report said regulation should apply “symmetrically to all service providers, based on whether they have significant market power, regardless of the technology they use.”
Economic regulation should be restricted to markets “where a service provider has significant market power,” the report said. The report recommended that the CRTC lift requirements that regulated carriers make available to competitors nonessential facilities and services on an unbundled basis, at regulated rates - and substitute “a system that creates better incentives to invest in the construction of new competitive telecommunications networks.” The report also said before-the-fact (ex ante) regulation should be replaced with after-the-fact (ex post) regulatory intervention “based on verified complaints of significant market problems.”
Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier promised a thorough review. “I intend to work, along with my Cabinet colleagues, to ensure that Canada has a policy and regulatory framework that provides Canadians with access to telecommunications services that are, in every sense, world class,” Bernier said.