September / October 2005
Telecom Policy should accommodate role of R&E networks
Canada's telecommunication policy must support the growth and development of leading-edge research and education (R&E) networks across Canada and avoid introducing barriers to their development.
That's the main thrust of Canada's R&E networks submission to the federal government's Telecommunications Policy Review Panel, which is reviewing all aspects of Canada's telecommunications policy and making recommendations on future directions and priorities.
Canada's leading-edge R&E networking community, which includes CANARIE Inc. at the national level and ORION and other provincial and territorial regional advanced networks across the country, call on any future policy to support the critical role our R&E networks play in keeping Canada at the cutting edge of network technologies and global scientific research.
The group seeks explicit policy recognition of their contribution to Canada's innovation economy and warns against any new rules that would prevent the not-for-profit R&E networks from pushing development and use of next generation Internet technologies in Canada.
"We are a critical innovation infrastructure and must continue to evolve as instruments of Canadian telecommunications policy," states CANARIE President and CEO Andrew K. Bjerring in the report.
"As Canada's R&E networks continue to provide access and lead advanced network and applications development, they provide an innovation platform essential to our researchers and scientists and important to our communications carriers," he writes.
The R&E Networks in Canada include provincial and territorial optical regional advanced networks (ORANs) as well as CANARIE Inc., Canada advanced Internet development agency.
Collectively, they are responsible for the design and operation of the research and education network infrastructure of Canada, interconnecting virtually all of the country's colleges and universities and several federal and provincial research labs, schools and school boards, hospitals and private sector research facilities.
Visit the Review web site at www.telecomreview.ca or download the full submission.
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