Canada's CRTC has named current vice-chairman Leonard Katz as its interim chairman, replacing Konrad von Finckenstein, whose term ended this Wednesday.
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The CRTC, as reported in Canada.com, will appoint a permanent replacement for the chairman position before Katz's term expires in the fall.
Many Canadian telecom industry watchers believe that Katz's appointment was not all that surprising. Prior to coming to the CRTC in 2005, Katz served in various regulatory and policy positions at both Rogers (NYSE: RCI) and Bell Canada (NYSE: BCE).
As noted in the Canada.com article, the end of von Finckenstein's controversial reign as the CRTC's chairman comes at a time that a host of new technologies and over-the-top (OTT) players are changing the rules of how services are delivered to consumers.
"There's more politics involved now than there ever has been," one industry source said. "That's a truth. As a result, you've got to be able to play the Ottawa game better than you ever have had to."
One of the biggest battles of von Finckenstein's era was the decision to let Bell to introduce usage-based Internet billing for the wholesale competitive service provider customers that sell services to consumers.
Following public outcry from competitive providers and political leaders, the CRTC revised its wholesale ISP billing model that allowed service providers to bill customers on capacity, not volume.
For more:
- Canada.com has this article
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