By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – The CRTC should look into the existing agreements and structures in place that deal with network reliability issues before it does anything hasty, according to panelists at the Canadian Telecom Summit, after the chairman said yesterday the commission plans to hold proceedings on the matter.
During his keynote speech on the first day of the conference yesterday, CRTC Chairman Ian Scott said the regulator will be planning proceedings that could examine issues related to reporting of major network outages, including enhancing network resiliency, access to emergency services, consumer communication and compensation, and penalties on providers.
But during the conference’s annual “regulatory blockbuster” panel today, representatives from some of the bigger telecoms said the regulator should slow down.
“Show some regulatory humility here,” said Ted Woodhead, chief regulator officer and government affairs at Rogers, whose network went down on July 8 and knocked out major services for millions of Canadians.
Woodhead pointed to Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne’s efforts to bring together the telecoms and force the large telecoms to enter formal agreements that will see them share their networks and equipment with each other in the event of a major outage, including allowing one company’s customers to roam on another company’s wireless networks.
“I think that actually is the kind of answer that makes sense here, and I’m not sure that the CRTC has to do anything other than its general oversight role because there is a technical group [such as the telecom-represented Canadian Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee]…with people that can implement these various protocols,” he said, adding these solutions will get done within a “matter of months.”
Paul Beaudry, vice president of regulatory affairs at Cogeco, agreed. “There are auspices under ISED and under various working groups that have been struck to work on better collaboration in the course of outages and the MOU that we all participate in.
“I would just caution against having a ‘ready, shoot, set’ approach where the regulator — because they feel like they want to do something — is overly-giddy in implementing overly-stringent requirements that might impede network deployments in the future in a way that we can’t even predict at this stage,” Beaudry added.
Stephen Schmidt, Telus’s vice president of telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel, used the same word Woodhead used to express a similar view: humility.
“Have the humility that, ultimately, operators have to operate networks and we can be kind of incented or encouraged…we have to play the reliability game at the end of the day,” Schmidt said.
Meanwhile, as Cartt.ca reported today, ISED is seeking bidders on a contract that will examine the “regulatory, policy, guidelines and compliance measures for telecommunications reliability from all-hazards implemented or under consideration in other similar jurisdictions to make recommendations that are suitable for the Canadian telecommunications environment.”
The panel touched on other matters related to the CRTC’s role, including its decision to limit to regional players with spectrum and infrastructure those that can force negotiations to roam on the large players’ networks.
Geoff White, executive director and general counsel for the Competitive Network Operators of Canada, a representative for independent telecoms, said the CRTC – pointing specifically at Scott, who noted yesterday that commission decisions are made by a group of people – failed Canadians by the decision because it limited service-based competitors from competing in the market. Samer Bishay, CEO of Iristel, generally agreed with White’s sentiments on the decision and competition in the market.
White noted that the next chair of the CRTC – Scott’s term ends next month – will have his or her hands full to reduce “barriers” to competition.
Indeed, as some panelists observed, the CRTC will be in for a wild ride over the next few years if new pieces of legislation that implicate the regulator are pushed through. That includes bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which would give the regulator enhanced powers to regulate online video and digital media.
“The new chair is going to have a difficult logistical job given the existing resource set,” Woodhead said.
Photo of the regulatory blockbuster panel today
