Report urges ‘policy reset’ for telecom sector to help operators invest

TORONTO — A new report says the focus of Canada’s telecommunications policy should shift from lowering consumer prices to creating better conditions for companies to invest in their networks at a time when traditional revenues are plateauing and capital costs are expected to rise.

The paper from U.K.-based Global System for Mobile Communications Association calls for a “policy reset” that prioritizes affordable and predictable spectrum pricing, support for 5G and AI infrastructure such as data centres, and improved regulatory certainty.

It also recommends continued public-private funding to bolster rural and Indigenous connectivity.

“Canada is reaching an inflection point in terms of telecoms policy,” said Niall Magennis, senior policy director for the association, which represents more than 1,000 mobile operators and related businesses across the world. “We have to remember that mobile networks play a key role in the economy.”

The report said mobile technologies and services generated 5.4 per cent of Canada’s GDP last year, or roughly US$120 billion of economic value — a figure expected to rise to US$170 billion by 2030.

But Magennis said much of Canada’s telecommunications policy was crafted in the early 2000s. While some elements were appropriate for decades in a high revenue growth environment, especially as elevated immigration levels brought new customers to Canada, the framework has grown outdated in more recent years.

The report pointed to Canada’s immigration slowdown, as telecom operators are now attracting fewer new subscribers and seeing their mobile revenues flatten, despite the rising cost of spectrum licences.

“Now the sector is experiencing much more of a squeeze,” said Magennis during a presentation Tuesday in Toronto.

— The Canadian Press