This was my first guest hosting of Squawk box and i have a learning curve to overcome.
Jim Kohlenberger, Executive Director of the VON Coalition, and Brita Strandberg, Partner at Harris Wiltshire, joined Carl Ford, Community Developer to discuss the regulatory world and particularly the intersection of Telecom and Web 2.0.
The conversation focused in on a number of wins that have happened lately for our community, but also on some particularly troublesome issues and areas of focus. A pending ruling from the FCC, a few state issues and some congressional activity. We also looked at the world.
I hope you enjoy the call and look forward to commentary.
by alec on March 28, 2006
In the "Please Remove Your Head From Your Posterior" department, New Democrat MP’s Charlie Angus and Brian Masse have raised the spectre of job losses, higher phone bills and increased foreign ownership if Canada liberalizes telecommunications laws. According to today’s Globe and Mail, the NDP says it is alarmed by the willingness of Canadian trade negotiators to ease foreign ownership restrictions on telephone companies.
News flash, boys… this quarter Bell Canada announced 4,000 layoffs. Insiders tell me the number is likely to be higher. North American phone companies are losing land lines at a rate of 10,000 per day right now. Canadian industry folks have told me that 1,000 per day is about right for Canada too.
Unless Canada brings telecom regulations in step with market and technology realities, there simply won’t be an industry to regulate.
