A few interesting telecom, competition, privacy and regulatory law developments caught my eye today including:
The Acting Chairman of the CRTC delivered remarks to the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto on competition in the telecom sector, proposed small telecom ownership rule changes, caps in the upcoming spectrum auctions, Do Not Call List enforcement funding (to allow the CRTC to recover administration and enforcement costs from the telemarketing industry) and anti-spam enforcement: Speech by Leonard Katz to the Canadian Telecom Summit.
The Minister of Industry also delivered a keynote address at the Telecom Summit with brief remarks discussing the spectrum auctions and proposed small telecom ownership rule changes, as well as new funding for SMEs, copyright reform and anti-spam legislation: Speaking Points to the Canadian Telecom Summit, Minister Paradis Challenges Telecom Industry to Innovate, Create and Thrive.
There was also a fair amount of debate today on Bill C-38 generally including from the opposition in Parliament (calling for the omnibus bill to be broken up with more debate), Telus’ CFO, who called for a level playing field in telecom ownership and raised the prospect of large foreign telecoms controlling small Canadian operators, and the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, which heard from Michael Geist who characterized the Canadian market as uncompetitive and advocated for more liberal changes to Canada’s telecom ownership rules: Removing Telco Foreign Ownership Restrictions. There is also some speculation that the draft Bill could return to Parliament from the Finance Committee as early as tomorrow.
A couple other interesting regulatory developments today included the Federal Privacy Commissioner tabling the annual PIPEDA report in Parliament, with a focus on children, the web and social media (including behavioural advertising) (Privacy for Everyone: Annual Report to Parliament 2011) and Canadian firm Mosaid Technologies Inc. being named by Google in an EU patent trolling complaint (Google Cites Mosaid in Pressing Antitrust Claim Against Microsoft, Nokia).
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