Industry Canada close to finding chair for tower committee
Industry Canada will soon be reviewing candidates to chair the committee that will lead a review of the cell phone tower antenna policy, Report on Wireless has learned. Candidate proposals are flowing into the department, and the government hopes to make its selection and release it publicly before the holidays. Industry minister Allan Rock announced the review at the end of October, which is scheduled to begin early next year with the release of a consultation document (RoW Update, Nov. 4/02).
Earl Hoeg, acting senior director of spectrum management operations at Industry Canada, tells Report on Wireless that the department should be in a position to issue a contract for the chair before the holidays.
Some industry observers have suggested that Rock’s announcement was simply to curry favour among the Canadian public for his run at the leadership of the federal Liberal party. But the current policy dates back to 1995 and it is time to review the seven-year-old policy, Hoeg states. He explains that like any other organization, the department is looking at ways to improve its way of doing things.
"Certainly there have been changes in the way we do licensing. We’ve moved more towards spectrum licensing with the auctions and that type of licensing regime is not all that well articulated in that procedure," he says.