Industry players herald arrival of CRTC executive director of telecom

Members of the Canadian telecom industry are delighted with the appointment of the new executive director for telecom at the CRTC. They point out that Leonard Katz brings a wide range of experience to the position, including expertise in the wireless sector.Commission chair Charles Dalfen named Katz to the job on January 5. He has held senior positions at Bell Canada, Cantel Inc., and Rogers Cable Inc. Most recently, he was president and COO of Digimerge Technologies Inc. and prior to that was president of Rogers Business Solutions."I am confident that Len’s experience and abilities will be of great value to our senior management team and that he will be an important asset to the commission," Dalfen said in a statement announcing the appointment.Shirley Soehn, the previous executive director, will stay on as a special advisor to her successor until March. She has been at the CRTC for five years. Network Letter asked various telecom executives to assess the switch. Many praised the new skill sets Katz brings to the job. "Lenny comes from a different background and is bound to have some interesting new ideas and approaches and everything else and that’s always good. It’s a good change, it’s a significant change from the past executive directors," Don Bowles, VP regulatory for Call-Net Enterprises Inc. tells NL. "He’ll bring a new perspective, particularly from his background in the wireless industry. They’ve never really had anyone there with a strong wireless background. It seems it’s such a big deal these days, that should be an interesting asset." The VP regulatory affairs at one of Katz’ former employers finds many parts of the new executive director’s résumé impressive. Ken Engelhart of Rogers Communications Inc. recites a litany of Katz’ accomplishments."Len has an advantage in that he has worked for Bell and he has worked for competitors. He has worked in the wireline market, in the wireless market and he’s worked in regulatory jobs and he’s worked in business and operations jobs," he notes. "So he really is able to bring to the job a huge number of different perspectives and there’s very few people in the country that have that much experience in such a wide range of the telecom market. So I certainly think if anyone has the experience to tackle these problems, it’s Len." Still major vacancy to fill at commission Now that the executive director’s position has been filled, the next vacancy that the industry is watching is the vice-chair of telecom seat. David Colville retired at the end of December after 14 years at the commission, nine of them as vice-chair. Everyone has their wish list for his replacement. "I think there the skill set is obviously somebody who has broadbased industry experience, certainly comes with an understanding of the issues and challenges that are underway," Janet Yale, executive VP of legal, government and regulatory affairs at TELUS Corp., remarks. "I think it would be difficult for someone who wasn’t well versed in these issues to deal with them because they are so complex. Ideally, somebody with a mix of public and private sector experience so that they have that broad range and understand the need to work collaboratively between the public and private sector." Engelhart notes that the director will be responsible for implementing the decisions arrived at by the CRTC commissioners. He believes that the two newcomers will have to work hand-in-hand. "I have no doubt that Len will be able to hit the ground running. If you get an experienced vice-chair telecom as well then they should be able to do the same," the Rogers VP tells NL. "If on the other hand they don’t have a lot of specific experience in the telecom sector, then they would have to obviously move along the learning curve before they could become really effective." Changing telecommunications environment The telecom world has changed drastically since Soehn began her term. Several CLECs debuted and just as quickly disappeared. Bell and Telus moved out of their established territories and offered services in each other’s area. BCE divested itself of its minority interest in MTS, which in turn used the money to buy Allstream Inc. Katz will have to deal with leftover issues as well as new challenges on the horizon. "I guess it’s more of the same, as far as we’re concerned," Teresa Griffin-Muir, VP regulatory affairs at MTS Allstream, states. "We’re coming to the end of the price cap regime and he’ll have to look at formulating the regulatory framework." Call-Net’s Bowles is troubled by the amount of time it takes the CRTC to handle case files. He hopes Katz can facilitate progress but has his doubts."They’ve got to be a little more responsive. I guess that’s always been my concern," he says. "Shirley was probably the pushiest person in the world. If she can’t get the commission more responsive, it’s hard to imagine how anyone else can." "The central problem that the telecom side had five years ago and that it still has today is that the wireline local telephone market is still a monopoly, that there has been very little progress on that," Engelhart remarks. "When Charles Dalfen took over as chair he said he wanted more competition in local telephone on the telecom side and more Canadian drama on the broadcasting side. So the local telephone monopoly is still the number one issue with the commission." Commission should focus on three key areas Yale locks into three sectors she believes the regulator must deal with in the years to come. The first is a definition of the regulatory environment. She cites areas such as price caps and forbearance from regulation as topics the CRTC should address. "I think 2005 should be about setting the terms and understanding what that endgame looks like, so that as the cable companies come into our space on an unregulated basis we all know and understand what success looks like and when we’ll be free from regulation as a result of the increase in competitive entry," she states. Next on her agenda is the establishment of priorities for the commission. She suggests the CRTC should review the necessity of all its procedures."I’ll give you an example. We do 25 separate filings to the CRTC every year, monthly, quarterly or annually depending. Twenty five, and we’re just one company," the TELUS VP remarks. "You can imagine the work it takes for us to prepare and then the work it takes for the commission to receive it from everybody and decide what to do with it, whether or not it achieves a public policy objective. So I’m saying, ‘c’mon guys, just because we’ve been doing it forever doesn’t mean you still need to be doing it.’ I think it’s really important to have a dialogue around that." Her last wish is for the CRTC to focus on compliance and enforcement. "As we move into the world of deregulation and letting market forces operate obviously there is going to be some bad behaviour, there’s going to be some bad apples. You have to have confidence as a regulator that you have the tools from a compliance and enforcement perspective to deal swiftly with abuses when they’re found because then it gives you confidence that you can back off from regulation," she concludes. Yale applauds efforts the commission has already made in this direction, such as expedited hearings.

Industry players herald arrival of CRTC executive director of telecom

News | 01/18/2005 5:00 am EST

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