Election 2011 Roundup

 A Liberal government would ‘look’ at telling major phone and cable companies to create a wall between their wholesale broadband network operations and retail consumer sales division, says industry critic Marc Garneau, to protect independent Internet providers. Called functional separation (because only the functions would be separated, as opposed to forcing carriers to split the divisions from their companies, it’s being used by British Telecom. But a Canadian academic says this alone won’t save ISPs.  http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/liberals-would-look-at-functional-separation/143019
The New Democratic Party platform promises to enshrine the principle of Internet neutrality in law end price gouging by Internet providers ande prohibit them from imposing any form of usage-based billing as part of its digital economy policies However, there’s a lot left to be explained. http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/ndp-digital-platform-leaves-unanswered-questions/142909
The Conservatives released their platform on April 6, promising only to reveal their digital strategy if they’re re-elected. http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/network-world/2011/04/08/tories-holding-back-digital-strategy/62900/

The Liberals released a full platform including a digital strategy. However, they’re silent on a key issue, how they’d structure the upcoming wireless spectrum auction. http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/liberal-platform-highlights-digital-technologies/142871

 

The Conservative government was only weeks away from releasing its digital strategy when the election was called, says Industry Minister Tony Clement. But he won’t say if it will come out during the campaign instead. http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/clement-mum-on-tory-digital-strategy-details/142872

 

The budget wasn’t the only thing that died when the election was called. Read about the big telecom-related issues that have also been stepped over and why they’re important.  http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/three-telecom-issues-stranded-by-government-defeat/142805

As soon as the election was called people in the IT industry let us know what they’d like to hear the leaders talk about.  http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/what-it-wants-to-hear-on-the-campaign-trail/142802