- Email: [email protected]
Telecommunications and Canada
Conferences/Book session. The session was chaired by Sam Fedida, now an independent consultant, who has become known as the ‘Father of viewdata’ because of his Prestel development efforts at the PO. Representatives from the Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Company, the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the Captain system’s Research and Development Centre, and the Japanese Newspapers Association presented papers. The Captain system, whose 1 000 terminal field-trial was inaugurated in December 1979, differs markedly from the Romanic videotex systems in that it can display a large number of discrete figures or characters, including over 3 OfKlKanji (Chinese) characters and freely composed patterns. The major drawback of long-time frame forming has been somewhat overcome by data reduction techniques to enable a full character frame to be displayed in under 10 seconds, on average. The Captain system uses a packet transmission format of six different types of image control, colour and display positioning packets. One of the inherent system advantages allows the IP to hand-draw complicated images rapidly and easily by using a light pen I/O terminal. An intriguing development underway is the provision of a voice phoneme generator integral to the user’s Captain terminal. This feature will allow the Captain computer to transmit simultaneously both colour frames and voice messages to the user the without adversely affecting transmission speed. The target date for commencement of operational Captain systems was announced as 1981. Projections by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications foresee a low-cost videotex service with 98% home saturation by 1990. Returning to the UK, the PO was not to be outdone, and its session presented a lively discussion on Thursday morning on a number of practical videotex topics. These included the projected implementation timetable for nationwide Prestel service (over 90% of the country will be served by I986), and the announcement by K. E.Clark, head of Prestel’s Research Development at the PO
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Research Centre of Picture Prestel. The new system was then demonstrated at the conference. It was pointed out that if videotex was an electronic newspaper, then most newspapers used stylized graphics in only two places-the weather map and Half-tone photographs, cartoons. however, are frequently used both by the editorial and advertising departments, and represent an important visual part of most newspapers today. Picture Prestel uses a 4 bit differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) coding scheme operating at 4800 bits per second to transmit a full colour still picture about one-ninth the full screen area in about IS seconds. Further development of transform coding and image build-up would allow the rapid transmission of a complete low-definition image whose resolution would be gradually improved with each passing second. This strategy would allow the consumer to reject undesired pictures quickly. Ultimately, the use of transform coding would also allow the number of bits required for the picture transmission card storages to be reduced by two thirds. The projected in service date for the unfortunately incompatible Picture Prestel (which
reviews
would require a dual-coding switchable decoder set) was set at 1984-85. These were three of a total of 17 sessions, including excellent presentations by the French, Dutch, US and Scandinavian videotex developmental organizations. Other special sessions on Private Viewdata Systems, Telesoftware, Electronic Publishing, Advertising on Videotex,Teletext, and Interwere well national Standards, attended. Comments on the Market Projections session are given elsewhere in this issue.z Following the conclusion of the Symposium, Viewdata 81 was announced by the organizers, to be held in London next Spring. Anthony T. Easton Chairman, Graduate Department of Telecommunications, Golden Gate University, San Fransisco, CA, USA
~DrMaddenisnowPresidentofMiPaciftc Research. Canada,
a
subsidii
ot GTE
Electmnii:atiielytnedmniitoaidintherapid export of Tetii
tech~
and phiksophy to
the GTE Tetenet US data carriersubsidiary. 5iee ‘Mwpoinf section.
Book reviews Clyne Committee
report
TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND CANADA
March, 1979, just before the Liberals temporarily fell from grace. Telecommunications and Canada, Consultative Committee on the being more properly the Report of the Implications of Telecommunications Consultative Committee on the Implifor Canadian Sovereignty cations of Telecommunications for Canadian Sovereignty has come to be Canadian Government Publishing more commonly referred to as the Centra, Supply and Services Canada, Hull, Quebec, Canada KlA OS9, ‘Report of the Clyne Committee’, taking its name from the highly 1979,98 pp respected Chairman, the Honourable The return to power of Pierre J. V. Clyne, formerly British Columbia Court Justice and now Trudeau’s Liberal government, follow- Supreme ing less than nine months of Conser- Chancellor of the University of British vative party rule, may have the effect of Columbia. The Committee, comprised of nine breathing new life into certain of the Canadians from different policy recommendations contained in a prominent disciplines and regions of the country, report entitled Telecommunications and Canada which was published in was appointed on 30 November 1978 by
POLICY September 1980
233
Book reviews
the then federal Minister of Communications. Its terms of reference, in abbreviated form, were ‘...to produce specific recommendations on a strategy to restructure the Canadian telecommunications system to contribute more effectively to the safeguarding of Canada’s sovereignty’. It was asked specifically to have regard to new technologies such as fibre optics, satellites and interactive television, and to address the implications for Canadian sovereignty of such issues as the use of communications satellites, the importation of foreign programming, the status of cable television systems as specialized carriers, and the framework and timing for the introduction of pay television nationally. The terms of reference were so broadly worded that many critics suggested that a full Royal Commission should be struck to inquire into these issues: there was even more criticism of the fact that the Committee was given only three months in which to complete its work and to report back to the Minister. The pressure for an early reporting date appeared to arise from the fact that a federal general election was to be held in the spring of 1979 and the government wanted to have the report completed before that election. To those who asked whether the Report was necessary at all, particularly since it had to be prepared within a very short period of time, the Minister replied that a comprehensive review of the issues and a set of policy recommendations were urgently required because ‘. . . the Canadian communications system is in the midst of a crisis more profound than any that has affected it since the 1920s’. The crisis of the 1920s was the rapidly increasing availability in Canada of commercial radio broadcasting signals of US origination, which phenomenon led to the creation of a Royal Commission which recommended the establishment of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In the late 1940s history repeated itself with the widespread reception along the Canada-USA border of commercial television broadcasting signals of US origination, presenting a problem to Canadian cultural nationalists that has only been exacerbated since that time by the dramatic growth
234
of cable television systems distributing distant foreign signals imported via microwave. The communications ‘crisis’ that was perceived to exist in the late 1970s was of the same genre, but was not localized along Canada’s 3200 mile common border with the USA, nor was it restricted to the reception of broadcasting signals. The modem-day crisis’ is more ubiquitous in its impact, in part because communications satellites are indifferent as to terrestrial distance. When the government announced the formation of the Clyne Committee, unlicensed television earth receiving stations, pulling in a wide range of US network and other programming signals, were springing up like mushrooms in the rural and remote areas of Canada. In addition, a number of applications had been filed with the Federal Communications Commission in Washington for licences to operate transmitters in US border stations to distribute scrambled off-air UHF paytelevision signals capable of being received in adjacent Canadian cities. Less well publicized, but considered to represent an even greater threat to Canadian sovereignty, were proposals for computer networking involving satellite transmission and transborder data flows. Those were the essential elements of the communications ‘crisis’ perceived by the Liberal government in late 1978 which gave rise to the creation of the Clyne Committee. The Report of that Committee comprises only 98 pages, with annexes. Although it provides a tour d’horizon of the main policy issues referred to in the terms of reference, and touches on many others before making some twenty-six lengthy recommendations, the discussion of policy issues in the Report is rather superficial. In many instances, the reader is left to
conjecture as to what factors determined a particular policy conclusion. Perhaps the best example of this is found in the two-page chapter on ‘Paytelevision’, wherein the Committee concluded that pay-television should be introduced in Canada only when the technology had been developed to permit efficient billing on a pay-perprogramme basis, rather than on a payper-channel basis. Such a fundamental policy recommendation calls for full discussion of the relative merits of the two methods of pay-television distribution, particularly since the Committee was asked to discuss the future role of cable in the context of the Canadian broadcasting system. Unfortunately, this is only one example of many where the policy recommendations stand in isolation splendid of supporting analysis of the relevant considerations and alternatives. The reader is left frustrated, particularly since in many instances it appears from the syntax and paragraph structure that pertinent material has been edited out of the body of the Report in the process of meeting the publication deadline. Telecommunications and Canada does, however, provide one with at
least a thumbnail sketch of the wide range of policy issues facing telecommunications planners in Canada today. Because of intervening events of a political nature, Canadians have heard little public discussion or analysis of the recommendations contained in the Report: it remains to be seen whether the new Liberal government will dust off the Report and attempt to stimulate public debate on its key recommendations.
Robert J. Buchan, Gowling and Henderson, Ottawa, Canada
Teleconmunications Policy welcomes information on current research programmes, overviews of the aims and objectiies of research organizations, and short informative artioles on important issues for publication in its ‘Reports’ section.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
POLICY September 1980
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Research Centre of Picture Prestel. The new system was then demonstrated at the conference. It was pointed out that if videotex was an electronic newspaper, then most newspapers used stylized graphics in only two places-the weather map and Half-tone photographs, cartoons. however, are frequently used both by the editorial and advertising departments, and represent an important visual part of most newspapers today. Picture Prestel uses a 4 bit differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) coding scheme operating at 4800 bits per second to transmit a full colour still picture about one-ninth the full screen area in about IS seconds. Further development of transform coding and image build-up would allow the rapid transmission of a complete low-definition image whose resolution would be gradually improved with each passing second. This strategy would allow the consumer to reject undesired pictures quickly. Ultimately, the use of transform coding would also allow the number of bits required for the picture transmission card storages to be reduced by two thirds. The projected in service date for the unfortunately incompatible Picture Prestel (which
reviews
would require a dual-coding switchable decoder set) was set at 1984-85. These were three of a total of 17 sessions, including excellent presentations by the French, Dutch, US and Scandinavian videotex developmental organizations. Other special sessions on Private Viewdata Systems, Telesoftware, Electronic Publishing, Advertising on Videotex,Teletext, and Interwere well national Standards, attended. Comments on the Market Projections session are given elsewhere in this issue.z Following the conclusion of the Symposium, Viewdata 81 was announced by the organizers, to be held in London next Spring. Anthony T. Easton Chairman, Graduate Department of Telecommunications, Golden Gate University, San Fransisco, CA, USA
~DrMaddenisnowPresidentofMiPaciftc Research. Canada,
a
subsidii
ot GTE
Electmnii:atiielytnedmniitoaidintherapid export of Tetii
tech~
and phiksophy to
the GTE Tetenet US data carriersubsidiary. 5iee ‘Mwpoinf section.
Book reviews Clyne Committee
report
TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND CANADA
March, 1979, just before the Liberals temporarily fell from grace. Telecommunications and Canada, Consultative Committee on the being more properly the Report of the Implications of Telecommunications Consultative Committee on the Implifor Canadian Sovereignty cations of Telecommunications for Canadian Sovereignty has come to be Canadian Government Publishing more commonly referred to as the Centra, Supply and Services Canada, Hull, Quebec, Canada KlA OS9, ‘Report of the Clyne Committee’, taking its name from the highly 1979,98 pp respected Chairman, the Honourable The return to power of Pierre J. V. Clyne, formerly British Columbia Court Justice and now Trudeau’s Liberal government, follow- Supreme ing less than nine months of Conser- Chancellor of the University of British vative party rule, may have the effect of Columbia. The Committee, comprised of nine breathing new life into certain of the Canadians from different policy recommendations contained in a prominent disciplines and regions of the country, report entitled Telecommunications and Canada which was published in was appointed on 30 November 1978 by
POLICY September 1980
233
Book reviews
the then federal Minister of Communications. Its terms of reference, in abbreviated form, were ‘...to produce specific recommendations on a strategy to restructure the Canadian telecommunications system to contribute more effectively to the safeguarding of Canada’s sovereignty’. It was asked specifically to have regard to new technologies such as fibre optics, satellites and interactive television, and to address the implications for Canadian sovereignty of such issues as the use of communications satellites, the importation of foreign programming, the status of cable television systems as specialized carriers, and the framework and timing for the introduction of pay television nationally. The terms of reference were so broadly worded that many critics suggested that a full Royal Commission should be struck to inquire into these issues: there was even more criticism of the fact that the Committee was given only three months in which to complete its work and to report back to the Minister. The pressure for an early reporting date appeared to arise from the fact that a federal general election was to be held in the spring of 1979 and the government wanted to have the report completed before that election. To those who asked whether the Report was necessary at all, particularly since it had to be prepared within a very short period of time, the Minister replied that a comprehensive review of the issues and a set of policy recommendations were urgently required because ‘. . . the Canadian communications system is in the midst of a crisis more profound than any that has affected it since the 1920s’. The crisis of the 1920s was the rapidly increasing availability in Canada of commercial radio broadcasting signals of US origination, which phenomenon led to the creation of a Royal Commission which recommended the establishment of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In the late 1940s history repeated itself with the widespread reception along the Canada-USA border of commercial television broadcasting signals of US origination, presenting a problem to Canadian cultural nationalists that has only been exacerbated since that time by the dramatic growth
234
of cable television systems distributing distant foreign signals imported via microwave. The communications ‘crisis’ that was perceived to exist in the late 1970s was of the same genre, but was not localized along Canada’s 3200 mile common border with the USA, nor was it restricted to the reception of broadcasting signals. The modem-day crisis’ is more ubiquitous in its impact, in part because communications satellites are indifferent as to terrestrial distance. When the government announced the formation of the Clyne Committee, unlicensed television earth receiving stations, pulling in a wide range of US network and other programming signals, were springing up like mushrooms in the rural and remote areas of Canada. In addition, a number of applications had been filed with the Federal Communications Commission in Washington for licences to operate transmitters in US border stations to distribute scrambled off-air UHF paytelevision signals capable of being received in adjacent Canadian cities. Less well publicized, but considered to represent an even greater threat to Canadian sovereignty, were proposals for computer networking involving satellite transmission and transborder data flows. Those were the essential elements of the communications ‘crisis’ perceived by the Liberal government in late 1978 which gave rise to the creation of the Clyne Committee. The Report of that Committee comprises only 98 pages, with annexes. Although it provides a tour d’horizon of the main policy issues referred to in the terms of reference, and touches on many others before making some twenty-six lengthy recommendations, the discussion of policy issues in the Report is rather superficial. In many instances, the reader is left to
conjecture as to what factors determined a particular policy conclusion. Perhaps the best example of this is found in the two-page chapter on ‘Paytelevision’, wherein the Committee concluded that pay-television should be introduced in Canada only when the technology had been developed to permit efficient billing on a pay-perprogramme basis, rather than on a payper-channel basis. Such a fundamental policy recommendation calls for full discussion of the relative merits of the two methods of pay-television distribution, particularly since the Committee was asked to discuss the future role of cable in the context of the Canadian broadcasting system. Unfortunately, this is only one example of many where the policy recommendations stand in isolation splendid of supporting analysis of the relevant considerations and alternatives. The reader is left frustrated, particularly since in many instances it appears from the syntax and paragraph structure that pertinent material has been edited out of the body of the Report in the process of meeting the publication deadline. Telecommunications and Canada does, however, provide one with at
least a thumbnail sketch of the wide range of policy issues facing telecommunications planners in Canada today. Because of intervening events of a political nature, Canadians have heard little public discussion or analysis of the recommendations contained in the Report: it remains to be seen whether the new Liberal government will dust off the Report and attempt to stimulate public debate on its key recommendations.
Robert J. Buchan, Gowling and Henderson, Ottawa, Canada
Teleconmunications Policy welcomes information on current research programmes, overviews of the aims and objectiies of research organizations, and short informative artioles on important issues for publication in its ‘Reports’ section.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
POLICY September 1980