Blais’s key legacy: Five ways he shook telecom industry
Ex-CRTC chair known for dogged pursuit of agenda, making consumers priority
He prided himself on standing up to industry and putting consumers and broadband at the centre of Canada’s communications system.
Industry players may clash over the success of his policies and his leadership, but no one could accuse Jean-Pierre Blais of anything but a dogged pursuit of his agenda during his five years as chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
Blais’s term ended Saturday, leaving the regulator without a permanent leader as cabinet aims to fill his position “as expeditiously as possible,” Privy Council spokesman Paul Duchesne said in an email.
At his live-streamed farewell party at the CRTC’s Gatineau headquarters on Friday, Blais said he didn’t reapply for his job because the organization achieved the goals he set in 2012.
Here are five ways Blais’ CRTC shook up telecommunications during his tenure.
WIRELESS CODE CREATION
The CRTC spelled out consumer rights for mobile phones when it introduced the wireless code in 2013, a decision that perhaps had the most pronounced and immediate impact on wireless providers serving some 30 million subscribers nationwide.
The code effectively killed threeyear contracts and capped extra charges for exceeding data caps and roaming out of country at $50 and $100 per month, respectively.
Providers weren’t fans of the shorter contract periods since it’s much cheaper to retain customers than to win new ones.
Plus, the new rules meant they only had 24 months to recoup the cost of subsidized smartphones, resulting in higher bills for customers who increasingly choose top of the line Apple and Samsung handsets.
Last week, the CRTC updated the code to ban unlocking fees and mandate phones be sold unlocked as of Dec. 1, a decision that was lauded by consumers and the federal government and met largely with silence from the biggest carriers.
“It’s the final reward of a job done well,” Blais said in his farewell speech.
BROADBAND AS A BASIC SERVICE
In December, the CRTC declared broadband a basic service and created a $750-million fund to pay for it in rural and remote communities where there isn’t a business case. Crucially, some of the cash will come from cutting voice service subsidies. This won’t affect the vast majority of Canadians, and Internet providers shrugged at the ruling, but it will make a major difference for smaller centres and especially in the North.
Blais called this his “cornerstone” decision. Some consumer groups criticized it for not doing enough to push affordable Internet access for low-income citizens.
INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS
Blais wasn’t concerned about making friends in the industry, which he contends formerly enjoyed a too-close relationship with the regulator. He shut down BCE Inc.’s first attempt to buy Astral, threatened to regulate Netflix if it didn’t divulge subscriber numbers (it didn’t) and got rid of off-the-record meetings. In his final speech at a media conference this week, he blasted the federal government, content creators, broadcasters and the CBC. He was concerned, however, about getting people involved in public hearings. The commission started online surveys and even solicited comments from Reddit for the first time.
His relationships with CRTC colleagues also made the headlines. His clash with former Ontario commission Raj Shoan, who is suing the government for his job back after being fired twice, apparently muddied the atmosphere in the upper rankings. The government had trouble hiring a candidate last fall because it didn’t get a wide enough pool of candidates. It hasn’t hired a new full-time commissioner since fall 2015.
WHOLESALE INTERNET WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION
Telecoms are pouring billions into fibre cables that will bring the highest Internet speeds directly to Canadian homes. Naturally, they didn’t want to share these pipes that gave them a competitive advantage. But the CRTC mandated wholesale access to fibre-to-thehome connections in a decision Bell appealed in federal court. Bell lost. It also lowered wholesale Internet access rates, prompting players such as TekSavvy to immediately lower their prices.
Blais also enshrined net neutrality. The CRTC issued decisions on differential pricing that force providers to treat all content the same, putting an end to music streaming or video watching that doesn’t count against a data plan. This policy sets Canada on a different path than its U.S. counterpart, which just okayed such tactics.
BROADCASTING CANCON
On the broadcast side, which now amounts to one third of the CRTC’s business, Blais angered the creative community by decreasing spending requirements for programs of national interest.
Writers groups say this, along with a reduction in what qualifies a production as Canadian, will hurt an industry that’s already struggling to compete against Netflix.
But Blais accused them of being in an echo chamber, and said the way forward is through the promotion of content, not protection through quotas and tax credits.