Earlier this year, the CRTC introduced new rules for the traditional local telephone market to reflect growing competition as VoIP becomes more popular. At the time, Canada's telecom regulator said incumbent carriers such as Bell and Telus had to lose at least 25% market share before they could apply to be deregulated, which will give them the freedom to set prices based on market forces. Meanwhile, the CRTC decided to let rivals such as cablecos (Rogers, Videotron, Shaw, Eastlink, Cogeco) and independents such as Vonage the freedom to price how they wanted. The idea was this regulatory regime would encourage competition by "shackling" the dominant players until new players got a firm foothold. Today, however, the CRTC appears to be backtracking on its decision after issuing a statement it will re-examine the 25% threshold. This could see the threshold reduced to a more reasonable 15% or 20%, which would still give the competitors enough business to become sustainable before the ILECs are unleashed. So, did the CRTC goof earlier this year by under-estimated how quickly the cablecos would attract local customers? It's difficult to believe given Videotron posted strong subscriber growth last year, while Rogers and Shaw had modest growth only because the adopted a conservative approach to marketing and pricing. Perhaps the CRTC did get caught with its pants down, and today's statement is a mea culpa. Another statement made by the CRTC today was a re-affirmation of the VoIP rules, which regulate ILECs while giving rivals competitive freedom.

Nortel has agreed to sell its UMTS unit to - surprise, surprise - Alcatel for $320-million. It was only a matter of time before Nortel sold the money-losing business, and Alcatel seemed to be the most logical buyer. While Nortel can certainly use the $320-million, it is below the expectations of analysts, who were looking for about $500-million. Nortel held a conference call today at 9 a.m. to provide an “update on advances to the execution of its business plan”. According to analysts, Nortel's UMTS access business was losing about $200-million a year on sales of $400-million to $500-million. No wonder Nortel wanted out so badly. With UMTS out of the way, Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski can now focus on other parts of the business that don't meet his 20% market share benchmark. At the end of the day, Nortel will be a smaller player but, hopefully, profitable.
Update: For more views on Nortel, check out All Nortel, All the Time.

Apparently, Tim Berners-Lee believes this whole Web 2.0 thing has gotten completely out hand. Personally, it's already jumped the shark, and anyone using Web 2.0 (or 2.0 anything) today doesn't realize it or they're just being funny. For example, I'm having a Rib-Fest tomorrow, so my brother offered to come over tonight and help me prepare the ribs (which, of course, involves having a few beers). I told him that was a great idea because it's important to collaborate on these kind of things. His response? "Hey, it's Rib 2.0". Sorry about that, Tim!
Update: John Furrier doesn't think much of Berners-Lee's griping about Web 2.0. His makes a simple and strong statement that is food for thought about Web 2.0: "The key is the longevity that we will see with RSS. RSS is Web 2.0." I'm sure Dave Winer and Randy Charles Morin may have a few things to say about that!