Focus on consumer seen as key

Continued from FP1

He replaces Jean-Pierre Blais, a civil servant known for putting consumers ahead of corporate interests and for his challenging leadership style.

The CRTC is expected to turn up the decision-making volume this fall with its new leadership team at the helm after a particularly quiet summer under interim chair Judith LaRocque.

The Financial Post spoke with industry players about the most important files for Scott to tackle.

The most common issue flagged was access to wireless networks, specifically the federal government’s insistence that the CRTC reconsider a decision on wireless roaming.

In its original decision this spring, the CRTC ruled that Wi-Fi networks didn’t count as home networks. Small carriers such as Sugar Mobile were using Wi-Fi as a primary means of connectivity and roaming on Rogers’ network when subscribers weren’t on Wi-Fi. The incumbents considered this to be permanently roaming and lauded the CRTC’s decision.

But citing the need for more affordable wireless prices, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains took the rare step of sending the decision back to the CRTC. This will force the regulator to consider opening up wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), companies that don’t own their own networks but tend to offer cheaper plans through wholesale access to existing infrastructure.

The big network owners Rogers, Bell and Telus (Bell and Telus share network facilities) have argued that mandating MVNOs could hurt investment in network facilities.

The second area Scott is expected to tackle is broadband access. Blais set ambitious targets for internet download and upload speeds of 50 Mbps and 10 Mbps across the country, even in rural and remote areas where some citizens can’t even access a tenth of those speeds. Meantime, the CRTC created a net neutrality framework that aims to treat all content agnostically across mobile and digital networks.

“He has to think about the internet as the basis for everything,” former CRTC commissioner and chairman of the Internet Society of Canada Timothy Denton said in an interview. “Keeping the internet affordable and free — free as in speech and affordable in the price — is foremost in this era, this is where we do our communications.”

Third, parties are waiting to see whether Scott will keep Blais’ focus on the consumer.

“The former chair’s most notable achievement was his effort to place the public at the heart of decision making,” said Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. “All stakeholders will be anxious to see whether that continues.”

Other issues expected to require Scott’s immediate attention include the digital Canadian content policy Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly is expected to release in September. Blais’ tried to change policies to rely less on quotas for Canadian content, but he faced intense backlash from the creative industry.

Scott will have to deal with these changes as the government moves to modernize the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act.