The proposed direction seeks to promote affordability as the Government’s top priority and position the issue at the forefront of telecoms policymaking
Regulator must take a renewed approach to telecoms policy: Government department Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has proposed a new policy direction for the country’s telecoms sector, which will require the national regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), to put in place measures to drive competition and support consumers. In communicating its draft direction, ISED stated that it wants the CRTC to create more effective and timely regulation, improve consumer rights and progress towards universal access to telecoms services. The Government’s updated policy goals ultimately aim to ensure that Canada's telecoms networks are able to support the latest innovative applications, available to all citizens (whether at home or at work), and reasonably priced.
Affordability is the centrepiece of the strategy: The minister of Innovation, Science and Industry considers that some encouraging progress has been made in lowering retail prices; in January 2022, ISED announced that it had met its commitment to cut the price of mid-range mobile plans by 25% within two years. However, the minister also recognises that more needs to be done to reduce the costs facing consumers. For instance, the ITU’s latest ICT price baskets show Canada to be one of the most expensive mobile markets. To that end, the proposed direction seeks to promote affordability as the Government’s top priority and position the issue at the forefront of telecoms policymaking.
Draft direction will be largely welcomed by smaller players: ISED’s new approach aims to increase competition across fixed and mobile, which will require the CRTC to establish a wholesale internet regime that is “sustainable, effective and fair”. In ISED’s view, facilitating market entry upstream will stimulate consumer choice and price competition at the retail level. Smaller, regional ISPs will be cautiously optimistic about the policy proposals but will be eager to see the regulator move quickly to realise the Government’s vision, particularly as it overturned its own 2019 decision to reduce wholesale internet access charges. For the CRTC, the new consumer-oriented policy direction represents a challenging programme of work; the regulator will have the responsibility of finding a balance between incentivising investment and innovation and promoting competition and affordability, all amid the fallout of a potential Rogers/Shaw merger.
