Evidence of meeting #55 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bell.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:25 p.m.
Telecommunications Consultant, Vaxination Informatique, As an Individual
As an individual, my death...
4:25 p.m.
Telecommunications Consultant, Vaxination Informatique, As an Individual
I think so, but you can perhaps put the question to Rocky.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
4:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, TekSavvy Solutions Inc.
Within 15 seconds...it will become a very difficult challenge.
It is going to be very difficult to respond to situations that change daily.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to the representatives for being here this afternoon.
Our time is limited. I have one question for each party, so we'll just sort of go down the line. If you could be as brief as possible with your responses, that would be appreciated.
Mr. Stein, does the issue of Internet traffic exist? And to the extent that it does, how should traffic congestion be managed?
4:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Network Services, Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc.
You do it by building appropriately sized networks. In the event that you have congestion, you build a little bit more. Then you appropriately charge the wholesaler that is using up individual components of that network. You don't arbitrarily apply caps on their end customers.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Thank you.
TekSavvy, if UBB is not the right billing model for small ISPs like yours, and clearly we all agree that it isn't, what is?
4:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, TekSavvy Solutions Inc.
Right now there's a bit of confusion as to what UBB truly is. TekSavvy has been applying UBB for years, for probably the better part of 12 years. We apply it on the Internet side. There's an actual cost to that component. From the wholesale side, with Bell in particular, being as this is the topic, that has fixed costs that have, through phase 2, as JF mentioned earlier, been applied to all of the backbone services.
UBB needs to keep existing, but it needs to keep existing in a cost-based mechanism. This is where we differ very much from what Bell has said and what the CRTC has judged recently.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Mezei, what is the solution to the issue of the last mile?
4:25 p.m.
Telecommunications Consultant, Vaxination Informatique, As an Individual
There are models in Europe, where the government regulated that the last mile be open access that many companies can have access to. There are different ways of implementing that. Britain split British Telecommunications into two, a network--basically a Bell Nexxia--and a Bell retail, so that they don't have a conflict of interest. Other countries have used regulation without splitting the companies.
In terms of the billing, it has to be bulk, because an ISP buys in bulk.
All of the Internet works on a capacity basis. There's no point in going to UBB at one point. This is something that is done at the retail level, and it should be under the full control of the retail ISP, not the wholesale provider.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
Thank you very much, Mr. Braid. That's quite timely.
Gentlemen, I apologize for limited time. We have two rounds of witnesses today in this meeting. Thank you very much for your testimony.
We're going to suspend for a couple of minutes while the witnesses leave and while we bring in the new witnesses for the next round.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
We're still in the 55th meeting, with our second panel now. We have egateNETWORKS Incorporated as well as Oricom Internet, and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
I understand that everybody has been briefed: five minutes per organization for opening remarks. We need to stay pretty tight. We're already chewing into our one-hour time here.
So we'll begin with Paul Andersen for five minutes, please, sir.
4:30 p.m.
Paul Andersen President, egateNETWORKS Inc.
Good afternoon. My name is Paul Andersen. I'm the president of egateNETWORKS. I'd like to thank the chair and committee members for this opportunity to appear before you on this important issue. I'm here to speak on behalf of egate, but I've been intimately involved in the Internet industry for many years as the chair of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority and trustee of ARIN.
EgateNETWORKS is an Internet connectivity and hosting provider that focuses on the small and medium-sized business market. Over the past 15 years, we've evolved our product line in ways that differentiate us from competitors while serving both—
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
4:35 p.m.
President, egateNETWORKS Inc.
Of the translators? Yes. I'm also mindful of the five minutes, Chair.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
Yes. We have translation, so we want to make sure everybody gets it.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Chair, a point of order. It may be that there's some pretty good information coming across here. I have no difficulty with staying an extra four or five minutes after 5:30, if I have the consent of the committee, so that we hear from everyone. What happens is that in the five-minute rounds, they often have to re-explain what they weren't able to say. If we want to give them a little bit more time with us, adding another five minutes at the end, I have no difficulty with that.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
Then to be fair again, Mr. McTeague, I need to be equal across the board. So that will be six minutes per witness, then, for opening?
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
Does everybody agree?
Mr. Andersen, you can now slow down a full minute.
