Telus continues its push to reform spectrum policies in conference keynote address

MISSISSAUGA — Canada made progress with its upcoming spectrum auction framework but has more reforms to implement if it wants to offer cost effective 5G services, according to Telus Corp. which opened the Canadian Telecom Summit for the second consecutive year with an attack on some of Canada’s pro-competitive measures. Monday, Telus executive vice-president and Telus Business Solutions president Navin Arora delivered a keynote address at the conference which is focusing on the theme of intelligent connectivity. “Canada needs to maintain its network leadership to continue to attract innovators and early stage businesses looking to pilot technology on what are currently the world's fastest and most reliable members. This needs to happen or Canada risks being outpaced by our global peers which are further down the path of 5G,” Arora said. During last year’s 3,500 MHz auction, Telus spent some $1.95 billion for 142 licenses covering a population of 24.9 million people. At last year's edition of the Canadian Telecom Summit, Telus executive vice president of home solutions Zainul Mawjii also focused on the high cost of spectrum in her keynote address. Mawji said that the next ISED spectrum auction must guarantee that every carrier gets 100 MHz of spectrum, alongside strict deployment rules. During the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s (ISED) consultation on its upcoming 3,800 MHz auction, Telus noted that it generally disagreed with the use of pro-competitive measures, but it supported the application of a cross-band cap in mid-band holdings among the national operators. ISED ultimately decided to implement pro-competitive measures in the form of a 100 MHz cross-band cap across the 3500 MHz and 3800 MHz bands rather than set-aside spectrum for the upcoming auction. Arora said Canada needs a “fair and consistent” public policy that puts all Canadians first and that is “conducive to investment.” He called the 3,800 MHz framework meaningful progress, but said that further work is needed in order to deploy the resource more quickly. Arora claimed Canada is currently four years behind leading 5G markets. “We must ensure that spectrum which has historically been sold at deep discount to regional carriers as part of the subsidization program paid for by Canadian taxpayers is deployed," and not sitting fallow or used as a speculative investment," he said. Arora pointed to Australia – which is similar to Canada in terms of population to geographic size – which he said auctioned off its 5G spectrum without set-aside policies and as a result its providers were able to offer cost effective 5G services. “Furthermore, Australia recently demonstrated a successful 5G upstream speed of two gigabits per second, which is critical for edge computing, AI robotics, and industrial IoT applications. Innovators in Canada are eager to develop their products using speeds of this magnitude. And let's not forget that digital advancements translate to climate advancements. The world's population just hit 8 million. The implications for our future generations will be determined by how we tackle climate change,” he said. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca.

Telus continues its push to reform spectrum policies in conference keynote address

News | November 21, 2022

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Telus continues its push to reform spectrum policies in conference keynote address

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