2004 Canadian Telecom Summit

The 2004 Canadian Telecom Summit lived up to lofty expectations as the who's who gathered in Toronto last week at a time when the industry is poised to go through massive changes.
The highlight was Cisco's John Chambers' statement his company would be interested in a partnership with Nortel. It is tough to tell whether Chambers was ambushed during a post-keynote speech by the ROB-TV's Michael Vaughan or whether the politically-savvy Chambers saw an opportunity to deliver a very public message to Nortel CEO Bill Owens. Chambers controls the agenda and given he did met with Owens at the conference, you have to believe Chambers was well aware of what he was doing. Still, it made for great theatre.
As for the show itself, there was a heavy regulatory theme – not surprisingly given the uncertainty about how the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is dithering about whether or not to regulate VOIP. Telus CEO Darren Entwistle launched a rocket across the bow of the CRTC by demanding it change its ways. His speech, he later protested, was not an attack but constructuve criticism because it also included “pragmatic” recommendations”. Call it what you want, Mr. Entwistle but you have have joined BCE Inc.'s Michael Sabia in the pound as an attack dog.
Another interesting development was Allstream COO John Macdonald talking about his company's willingness to do business with cable companies. This took place a day after he vehemently denied a story I wrote in the Financial Post that Rogers was in talks with Allstream about rolling out local telephone service. At first, I thought I had misinterpreted comments by an Allstream executive but now I think there's something there given the enthusiasm of their objections.