The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.

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Comments to Industry Minister Maxime Bernier’s proposed Policy Direction to the CRTC are rolling in with respective parties arguing why it should or should not be adopted. Below is an excerpt from Bell Canada.

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Isabelle Courville has stepped down as president of Bell Canada’s enterprise group. Courville has led a number of important initiatives at Bell including leading the integration of Télébec and NorthernTel while she was president and CEO of the Bell Nordiq Group. She also spearheaded the creation of the Bell Nordiq Income Fund, the first of its kind in the Canadian telecommunications industry. Since being named president of the enterprise group in 2003, Courville and her team have repositioned the business as a Canadian ICT leader. In a news release announcing Courville’s departure, Bell Canada CEO Michael Sabia said the company is looking forward to continuing its association with Courville.

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Yellow Pages to acquire MTS directories
MTS Allstream has announced that it has reached an agreement to sell its telephone directories business to Yellow Pages Group Co. for $281 million, of which $275 million will be paid in cash. "This transaction is a clear sign of our commitment to create and deliver long-term value for our shareholders," MTS Allstream, president and CEO Pierre Blouin said in a news release. "Our directory business is performing strongly, but as a publishing enterprise it is outside the scope of our core telecommunications franchise." The transaction has been approved by MTS Allstream’s board of directors and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006.Under terms of the agreement, all employees of MTS’s directories business will be offered employment by Yellow Pages.

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Consumers will be the main beneficiaries of the increased influences of market forces on pricing due to the use of rate ranges for telecommunications services according to a joint submission to the CRTC from Bell Canada, NorthernTel LP and Télébec. Of course, the ability to respond to competitive pricing quicker will benefit the ILECs as well, something that was not lost on some of the other parties which filed comments to Public Notice 2006-8.

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MTS Allstream is warning the federal government that if it adopts the proposed policy direction issued and tabled in Parliament by Industry Minister Maxime Bernier on June 13 as it is currently written, telecom competition in the country will wane.

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A new survey released by Statistics Canada says that fewer Canadians living in rural and remote areas of the country were accessing the Internet with a high-speed connection in 2005 compared to those living in urban areas.

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While the CRTC very well may determine that mobile wireless services should be considered in the same market as wireline services with respect to forbearance, which wireless subscribers can be counted against an ILECs market share will be another issue altogether.

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Telephone-service customers on incumbent phone networks have a straightforward path to complaint resolution and restitution should the services they receive fail to impress, but the same can’t be said for VoIP service customers.

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