The five year mandated term of Konrad von Finckenstein, former Chair of the CRTC, is up as of today and Leonard Katz is stepping in as interim Chair until von Finckenstein’s replacement is found. Len Katz has served as vice-chairman of telecommunications for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission since 2007. He also spent 1974 to 1985 at Bell Canada, 17 years at Rogers, and 2004 to 2007 at a private digital security firm.
In an interview with the Canadian Press, von Finckenstien advised the new Chair (future and interim) to not get co-opted by the interests of big telecom. After seeing Katz’s resume, this is some advice that he should heed. Von Finckenstein himself was a known problem for the Harper Government. The two major decisions of his five year term both cut down big telecom and put the interests of Canadians first.
During last year’s decision regarding Wind Mobile’s right to operate in Canada, von Finckenstein was forced to make a decision to allow or disallow Wind Mobile to enter the Canadian mobile phone market as a service provider. Egyptian company Orascom Telecom Holding SAE holds a 65 per cent equity stake in Globalive, the Canadian company that operates Wind Mobile. Minister Tony Clement insisted that it would be better for Canadian consumers if they had more choice in the matter, yet von Finckenstein maintained that the CRTC policies regarding percentage of Canadian ownership is there to protect Canadian producers, not consumers. In the end access was granted to Globalive to operate Wind Mobile in Canada.
It was von Finckerstein’s CRTC that amended by-laws in order to include the Diversity of Voices bylaws that make sure that communities within Canada have fair usage and representation in broadcast media. This is the new set of by-laws that may give Ryerson Radio the competitive edge over its commercial competitors. Diversity of Voices is not only about community representation in the content, but in the ownership and structure as well.
Most recently, von Finckerstein’s CRTC made the controversial-if-it-wasn’t-so-confusing usage based billing decision that allows big telecom to charge independent internet service providers a per use instead of flat rate basis for the use of their infrastructure. Like the Wind Mobile decision, it was Tony Clement and the Harper Government that pressured von Finckenstein to make a decision. The CRTC is a regulatory body and the government legally allowed overturning any one of the CRTC’s decisions.
Accusations of corruption and bowing to large telecommunications companies has always plagued CRTC Chairs, but now such an obvious influence at the helm, pressure will be mounting from individual Canadians. Von Finckerstein had a rough five years with the advent of many new ways of sending and recieveing information in Canada, but he remained one of the most open and transparent Chair’s in the CRTC’s history. In an interview with Cartt.ca (Canadian radio and television news site) von Finckenstein spoke to this:
“A prime example would be UBB, the wholesale decision. It wasn’t even a hearing. It was a wholesale decision dealing with what we thought was a relatively routine matter. It blows up out of all proportions. Thousands of emails and everything, etcetera. Everybody misunderstands it. Business gets upset. Everybody thinks we are mandating (data) caps, which we have never done and never will do. If you had asked me before we made that decision, ‘Is this going to be controversial?’ I would have said ‘it probably doesn’t get a headline.’”
