Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Ted Woodhead. I am the senior vice-president and strategic policy adviser at Telus Communications. With me today is Dr. Michael Guerriere, chief medical officer, vice-president, and chief strategy officer with Telus Health.
Net neutrality stands for the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. There should not be fast lanes and slow lanes, or one group unjustly discriminated against or unduly preferred over another in the management of Internet access services.
Canada's Telecommunications Act gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission broad discretionary powers to ensure all rates are just and reasonable, and that the offering of any service or rate to a person is not unjustly discriminatory. The principles of net neutrality are thus fully embraced by the act and the regulatory policies put in place by the CRTC.
While how to address net neutrality is not an issue in Canada, the broader issues of how other non-neutral policies can impact the provision of innovative technological solutions for services vital to Canadians wherever they live is an important issue, and one that is critical, in our view, for Canada and Canadians.
Preferring certain companies over others in auctioning spectrum assets through spectrum set-asides has led to spectrum trafficking and the allocation of urban and rural spectrum on a preferential basis to carriers who will not for the foreseeable future deploy it, if ever.
Why is this important, and why should you be concerned by this? In essence, it is a question of fairness and the proper management of a scarce public resource. There are many analogies between net neutrality and spectrum neutrality. The rationale behind the two concepts is the same. Discrimination brings similar results in that it materially impacts the provision of innovative broadband solutions. Giving more 5G spectrum to some players is no different from biasing Internet bandwidth flows. Preferential policies—in this instance, spectrum set-asides whereby only a category of companies can bid on extremely valuable and scarce spectrum—distort auction outcomes and oftentimes lead to spectrum being allocated to carriers who will not deploy it.
In the current draft consultation paper issued by Innovation, Science, and Economic Development in August of last year concerning the 600 megahertz low-band spectrum, the department proposes to set aside 30 of a total 70 megahertz of available 600 megahertz spectrum for mobile broadband, or 43% of the available spectrum. The set-aside subsidy is for regional operators, including well-financed cable companies such as Shaw, Vidéotron, and Eastlink. The 600 megahertz spectrum is important, especially for rural and remote areas, because it can travel long distances between towers and cover large geographic areas. It will be important for rolling out 5G in rural areas. The government should not pick winners or losers by leaving certain companies in the slow lane.