OpenMedia trains sights on Clement’s UBB comments in conference call

Advocacy group OpenMedia.ca says it intends to hold Industry Minister Tony Clement to a statement he made in a recent conference call with the group. In the meeting, Clement said that, in his upcoming digital economy strategy, he intends to touch on the policy framework for retail and wholesale Internet services, OpenMedia says. “He is on the record for sure that he's going to do that. If he doesn't, we'll certainly be letting half a million people know,” Steve Anderson, OpenMedia's national coordinator, said in a phone interview. On Friday the CRTC announced that it is not expanding the scope of its review of usage-based billing practices to include retail Internet services or wholesale high-speed Internet access for resellers. On March 9, Anderson had a conference call with Clement, in which the minister said the strategy, expected to be released in early May, will touch on the wholesale and retail framework. “He specifically said he'll be dealing with those in the digital economy strategy,” Anderson said. “He can certainly deal with the wholesale, retail, larger structural problems with the market, without necessarily touching the areas that the CRTC does. Or not directly anyway.” Addressing Canada’s Internet policy framework in the government’s digital strategy would be the quickest, most effective way to make changes, he said. “In terms of dealing with the wider structural problems that have led to usage-based billing, I think all eyes are on Tony Clement to deal with that in his digital economy strategy,” Anderson said. Anderson said the minister could give third-party ISPs the power to manage their own traffic, adding that Clement’s digital strategy could possibly overturn parts of the CRTC's policy on wholesale high-speed access for small Internet resellers. But Anderson said the minister was vague about how the policy will touch on the Internet services market. “He can do something pretty small, pretty minor ... but from our perspective, he said he would deal with the structural problem. To us, that means he will make changes to the structure,” he said. “It's more than a transparency audit. It's more than dabbling, piecemeal things.” Sheridan Scott, a telecom expert and partner at Bennett Jones LLP in Ottawa, said by email that it would not be inappropriate to deal with the Internet services framework in the government’s national digital strategy because usage-based billing relates to incentives for the financing of telecommunications infrastructure. But she added that the government has not held a public consultation on Internet services, and issuing a policy decision on it now could interfere with the CRTC’s usage-based billing review. “onsiderable caution would be required since the ramifications of any decision would obviously be quite significant and the government will have an extremely limited record upon which to base any determination, since this was not identified as an issue for public comment,” Scott said. “Meanwhile, it seems to me that care will have to be taken as well to ensure that there is no suggestion of political interference in the decisions of an independent agency such as the CRTC, other than through the avenues provided by statute.” Clement has said that, if he does not find the CRTC’s review decision adequate, he plans to override the commission. But he has also said the CRTC is equipped to make its own decision and that it would not be fair for the government to draw one up prematurely. On Friday, Clement said on Twitter that he was pleased to see the commission open an online review and a public hearing that would touch on congestion issues. But he also wrote that “the door must still be open to Canadians' broader concerns” about Internet pricing and competition. OpenMedia.ca asked the minister via the social media website whether he would take action based on his statement, to which Clement responded: “That's exactly what I'm doing; more to come.” Anderson said in his view the minister made a direct reference to the government's coming national digital strategy. Lindsey Pinto, OpenMedia.ca's communications manager, suggested by phone that the strategy may be released at the Canada 3.0 conference, May 2-4 in Stratford, Ont. Heather Hume, a spokeswoman for Minister Clement, wrote by email that Clement understands that a more comprehensive review of the overall framework may be too much to take on in the CRTC’s review of usage-based billing, but the broader issues remain a concern. “Certainly focusing on UBB to resolve it now for the benefit of consumers is what needs to be done, but it is clear that there are outstanding issues with regard to wider wholesale regulation that Canadians want to see addressed,” Hume said. Hume said the digital strategy will touch on issues concerning consumers, but she did not provide further details about how it may affect the Internet services market. She said the strategy will be released this spring and confirmed that Clement will attend the Canada 3.0 conference, but did not say if that will be its official release. Bill St. Arnaud, an IT consultant based in Ottawa, said by phone that the government could touch on the wholesale and retail Internet service frameworks without stepping on the CRTC's toes. “The CRTC is looking at a very narrow issue and that's the wholesale, usage-based billing issue with the incumbents,” he said. He said he hopes to see Clement take on a “broader strategy” to address “significant anti-competitive challenges” in the cableco and telco Internet services market—although the incumbent providers say the environment is competitive and usage-based billing is necessary to control network congestion. St. Arnaud said Internet and telecom policy has always been within the purview of the government. “The CRTC is a regulator, not a policy maker, so the government can easily set up policies that may completely change the agenda for the CRTC in terms of the usage-based billing hearings,” he said. “The CRTC regulates and interprets the existing law. That's its role. The government can change the law and the CRTC has to go along with it.” But St. Arnaud cautioned that OpenMedia is being optimistic about Clement's intentions. “I suspect it may be more of a whimper than a bang,” he said of the strategy. Liberal MP and industry critic Marc Garneau, who has called for an expanded usage-based billing hearing at the CRTC, said by phone that it is now up to politicians to ensure the wholesale Internet services framework is reviewed. Garneau said usage-based billing goes against the open Internet a digital strategy should support. Garneau said he will continue to call for an expanded review, and is evaluating whether he will appear before the commission as part of its proceeding. Garneau has filed a submission opposing the CRTC's usage-based billing policy and is currently collecting signatures from the public in support of the Liberal party's position, which is in line with OpenMedia's. Garneau and OpenMedia.ca said they will not seek to appeal the commission's position regarding the scope of the proceeding. George Burger, adviser to third-party Internet service provider (ISP) TekSavvy Solutions Inc., said in a phone interview that a number of people expected the CRTC to take note of calls to expand the scope. “There was an opportunity to try to deal with this issue more broadly, and that opportunity was not taken,” he said. “It just seemed that this was the right moment in time ... to take a step back.” Burger said the government should be encouraging Internet usage rather than trying to constrain it by using Internet traffic management practices such as usage-based billing. Tom Copeland, chair of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) and president of ISP Eagle.ca, said by phone that the CRTC's decision on the scope of the proceeding could have been worse. “They will entertain proposals on billing practices,” he said. “They have also not precluded looking at usage-based billing on a peak-period basis or including it somehow in looking at traffic management practices.” Copeland added that the wholesale Internet services framework could serve as part of the digital economy strategy, but that doesn't need to be its central piece. kfournier@thewirereport.ca

OpenMedia trains sights on Clement’s UBB comments in conference call

News | March 15, 2011

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