Major challenges remain to ensure roll out of broadband wireless, Barnes

Wireless technologies have a key role to play in connecting every Canadian citizen to the Internet, and enabling them to partake in the information economy. Broadband access will also allow them to benefit from the advanced services that will soon be offered on wireless high-speed networks. Last week, several hundred delegates from around the world gathered in St. John’s NF for the Wireless Vision Congress. It aimed to explore the practical applications of wireless in terms of providing health care, education and other types of services to citizens of the world. The following is an edited excerpt of a speech given by Peter Barnes, president and CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, exploring the challenges of building a national broadband communications infrastructure. As the Canadian poet, Hector de Saint-Denys-Garneau once wrote, "A people forms itself by acting, by creating, that is, by communicating. It finds itself through the act of communication." The building of a broadband infrastructure for all Canadians may well be our most important journey of self-discovery yet. Canada’s National Broadband Task Force recommends and believes that all Canadians should have access to broadband network services – as a matter of urgency. The first challenge is the framework of rules and obligations that now govern the wireless industry – here in Canada and worldwide. Consider this. Spectrum auctions, which resulted in astronomical licensing costs in many countries, will also have an impact on the ability to invest in future infrastructure and service development in Canada and abroad.Consider too, other regulatory obligations such as contributing to things like a subsidy fund that supports local telephone service. Here in Canada, the contribution costs of Canada’s wireless carriers rose by more than 1200 percent last year. Then there is the complex inter-relationship of government agencies with regulatory oversight and public policy responsibilities with respect to the wireless industry – both internationally and domestically. In Canada, our industry deals with a handful of federal government departments as well as provincial and municipal governments. Internationally, there are hundreds of standard setting bodies, study groups and agencies. The existing complexity of the rules and obligations that affect our industry underscores the need to carefully re-assess the policy framework. And the economic slow down is just another incentive to do so. And to do so at home as well as on a worldwide basis. I hope that we will see continued and indeed greater cooperation among different government departments and amongst international interests and this will go a long way in advancing public policy – smoothly and efficiently.A second major challenge is getting more spectrum for broadband wireless or 3G service as well as getting the spectrum allocations right. The Government of Canada has committed to release additional spectrum for 3G services. Efforts to work with the United States, other governments in the Americas, and CITEL members in harmonizing spectrum allocations are also underway. This has not been an easy task, however. For example, the FCC must balance the needs of American industry with the requirements of the U.S. military and all importantly the overall public interest. On a North American scale, our collective challenge is to work together to balance our domestic considerations within a global framework. Building a broadband communications infrastructure for all Canadians has been called by some Canada’s new national dream. In the 21st century, building a broadband communications infrastructure will be every bit as important for the future of the country as was the Intercontinental Railway and the subsequent national highway system in Canada. This will define our national identity on economic, social and cultural terms. The challenges are enormous, but the advantages and opportunities will be just as great.

Major challenges remain to ensure roll out of broadband wireless, Barnes

News | October 2, 2001

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