Spectrum licensing deserves special attention from Telecom Policy Review Panel

Broadband wireless operator TeraGo Networks tells the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel that it should pay special attention to spectrum licensing as a means to stimulate greater competition in the industry. The following is an edited excerpt of TeraGo’s submission to the committee. From a policy perspective, it is vitally important that regulators use spectrum licensing to foster competitive entry and expansion. Accordingly, we recommend that Canadian telecommunications policy specifically recognize the important role of spectrum licensing in enabling competitive entry. The regulator (whether Industry Canada, or the CRTC) that is responsible for spectrum licensing should be required to conduct licensing in a manner that encourages competition to the greatest extent possible. This approach should apply in the course of auctions, comparative selection processes, and the repurposing of existing frequency usage assignments. We also recommend that the large incumbent operators not be allowed to warehouse spectrum they have no realistic prospect of using. They have little incentive to voluntarily give up such spectrum. Yet other operators may well want that spectrum, and be in a position to make good use of it. Another step that can be taken to properly employ spectrum as an enabler of competition is to ensure that those companies that are licensed to use spectrum indeed make use of it. For example, there have been examples of foreign-controlled companies acquiring spectrum at auction from Industry Canada where the company in question was not Canadian owned and controlled, had no realistic expectation of deploying the spectrum to provide services in Canada in the foreseeable future and moreover sat on the spectrum resource without activity for many years. One may well question the business plan of such a spectrum owner, but the fact remains that the spectrum has become lost to Canadian commerce for an extended period of time. We recognize that Industry Canada is undertaking a public consultation of its spectrum policy framework. Still, the role of spectrum in the future of telecommunications is sufficiently vital that it should be addressed by the Telecommunications Policy Review generally. This will be particularly important if the CRTC takes over responsibility for spectrum management, which is one of the topics under review in this consultation. Accordingly, we recommend as follows: (a) The policy objectives of the Telecommunications Act and the Radiocommunication Act should specifically recognize the key role of spectrum and the importance of employing spectrum licensing to enable competitive entry and expansion. (b) When any new spectrum licensing activity is contemplated, the spectrum regulator should adopt specific measures to promote competitive entry and expansion wherever possible. These measures should be disclosed in any public consultation that precedes the licensing activity. (c) The spectrum regulator should periodically review the spectrum holdings of the large incumbent operators, to satisfy itself that spectrum is being appropriately deployed and is not simply being warehoused. (d) The spectrum regulator should be diligent, both initially and on an ongoing basis, that spectrum is licensed to those that will put it to good use.

Spectrum licensing deserves special attention from Telecom Policy Review Panel

News | 08/25/2005 4:00 am EDT

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