CRTC to get power to fine telecoms: Budget 2014

OTTAWA — The federal government will propose amendments to Canada's telecommunications laws to “clarify” prohibitions against breaking Industry Canada's spectrum auction rules and to give the CRTC new powers to fine and regulate telecom providers, the government's budget said. In the budget document released Tuesday, Finance Canada said the government will table amendments to the federal Telecommunications Act and Radiocommunication Act to “ensure fair and competitive bidding” during Industry Canada auctions of valuable wireless airwaves. The goal of those amendments — which were not clearly outlined in documents provided to media Tuesday — will be to produce auction results that provide “the greatest benefit for Canadians,” the budget said. “The Government will also propose amendments ... to provide the CRTC and Industry Canada with the power to impose administrative monetary penalties on companies that violate established rules such as the wireless code and rules related to the deployment of spectrum, services to rural areas and tower sharing,” the budget document said in a section of the budget called Improving Competition in the Telecommunications Market. The budget provided the first details of Industry Canada's plan to give the CRTC the ability to impose fines on telecom providers, which was first announced last year. It indicated the commission would be allowed to fine providers that break the commission's rules, such as the wireless code it implemented in December. It said the CRTC would also have the authority to fine companies that break certain Industry Canada rules for mobile providers, such as spectrum-licence conditions that require holders to provide coverage to a certain percentage of the people in designated areas. The plan to give the commission the ability to fine providers also appears to be related to the government's plan to clarify what happens to companies that break Industry Canada's spectrum auction process rules, which identify when and how companies can bid on spectrum licences, and what auction participants can discuss publicly before and during the auction process, among other things. The documents said the government would propose legislative amendments to clarify “prohibitions against violating Industry Canada's spectrum auction rules, to ensure fair and competitive bidding that achieves the greatest benefit for Canadians from this public resource.” The budget's release comes as most of Canada's mobile providers are participating in Industry Canada's auction of coveted 700 MHz spectrum airwaves, and as they gear up for its auction of 2500 MHz spectrum in April 2015. The government's stated focus of improving competition in the telecom sector also follows a year in which Industry Canada engaged in a public debate with Canada's largest mobile providers about the state of competition in the industry, and the merit of 700 MHz auction rules that limit large providers to a single block of “prime” spectrum in each region of the country, while allowing other competitors to acquire up to two of the four best blocks in each region. That focus also appeared in the budget as part of the government's “Consumers First” agenda, which it first announced as part of the government's throne speech in October. The government on Tuesday also reiterated its commitment to amend the Telecommunications Act to “cap wholesale domestic wireless roaming rates to prevent wireless providers from charging other companies more than they charge their own customers for mobile voice, data and text services.” Those rules, the budget document added, will remain in place until the CRTC concludes its ongoing consultation on wholesale wireless roaming rates and decides on its own policy framework. New entrant wireless providers, such as Wind Mobile, have complained that the rates larger providers charge the company to let its subscribers piggyback on their networks beyond the new entrants' service footprint are unfairly high and reduce their ability to compete in the market.. “With wholesale domestic roaming rates on networks capped, Canadian consumers will benefit from more competition in the wireless market,” the budget said, citing a Competition Bureau submission to the CRTC's consultation that said high wholesale roaming rates limit new entrant carriers' ability to compete. As part of the budget, the government said it would also propose legislative amendments to give the CRTC the authority to impose new conditions on companies that resell incumbent providers' telecom services, and to permit more information sharing between the commission and Industry Canada “to enable greater cooperation with organizations such as the Competition Bureau, which will benefit consumers.” The government also said it would clarify prohibitions against manufacturing, selling or using “jamming devices” that can block or otherwise interfere with mobile signals. “In addition, amendments will be introduced to streamline the process for certifying telecommunications equipment for use by consumers and businesses,” the budget said, without providing additional details. In the budget document released Tuesday, the government said it would also take steps to improve Canadians' ability to take part in the digital economy, including through expected funding commitments for rural broadband deployment and through renewed funding through the federal Computers for Schools Program. The government said it would dedicate $305 million over five years “to extend and enhance access to high-speed broadband networks to a target speed of 5 megabits per second for up to an additional 280,000 Canadian households” in the North and other remote areas, and would dedicate $36 million over four years to the Computers for Schools Program to provide students with “access to information and communications technology equipment and skills training.” The CRTC launched last week a consultation on satellite services that are used to carry telecom signals from rural and remote communities to the rest of the country after identifying the cost of those services as a key factor limiting rural broadband access last year. “Enhancing and extending access will create jobs, growth and prosperity for rural and Northern Canadians by increasing their ability to participate in the digital economy,” the budget document said. “Additionally, small and medium-sized businesses will benefit by having increased access to information and markets.” The CRTC said in its Communications Monitoring Report released last year that 94 per cent of Canadian households had access to broadband service with download speeds of 5 Mbps or better in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available. The commission will also launch a review next year of its basic service objective, and could require incumbent service providers to offer broadband speeds of 5 Mbps or better throughout their service territories. The government also said Tuesday that the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario would dedicate $3 million over three years to the Canadian Digital Media Network to launch a new initiative called the Open Data Institute to help stimulate the digital economy. Among other things, it said the Waterloo, Ont.-based institute would help ensure a “free flow of useful and usable” government data that can be used to “raise productivity and create new products and services” that can benefit Canadians, and would help stimulate Canada's “app” economy. “The new Institute will play a role in aggregating large datasets, informing the development of interoperability standards, and catalyzing the development and commercialization of new data-driven apps,” the budget said. The government also said in the budget that it would attempt to reduce unnecessary costs for Canadian businesses by aligning Canada's intellectual property regime with those in other countries through the ratification or accession of five international intellectual property treaties: the Madrid Protocol, the Singapore Treaty, the Nice Agreement, the Patent Law Treaty and the Hague Agreement. Those treaties, which were tabled in Parliament at the end of last month, relate to inter-jurisdictional trademarks, the international harmonization of administrative practices at patent offices and the protection of industrial designs, among other things. Their ratification will require amendments to numerous existing laws and will require consultation as either a standalone bills, or as part of a larger budget implementation bill. — With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

CRTC to get power to fine telecoms: Budget 2014

News | 02/11/2014 9:11 pm EST

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