Fighting the Good Fight:
Canadian Association of Internet Providers

Canada's ISP industry group represents more than a quarter of the nation's service providers and has exerted significant influence in the open cable access battle there.

by Christopher Knight

While in Toronto for ISPCon recently, I got a chance to speak with Jay Thomson, president of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers. In this conversation, we picked up some basic statistics on the organization, along with an overview of who it serves and what it does for ISPs. Finally, Mr. Thomson shared with us some brief predictions for the future of the Canadian ISP landscape.

The Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) has 106 ISP members and 38 affiliates—vendors that sell to ISPs. The organization currently serves over 25 percent of Canada's roughly 400 ISPs. Founded in 1996, CAIP has two full time staff members, (the president and a director of member services), and is hoping to expand that number in the future to advance the missions of the organization.

Members
CAIP offers four membership levels to actual ISPs. These are based on revenue and range of geographic coverage:

• Local members are under $2 million in revenue and operate in 1 or 2 provinces.
• Small Regionals operate in one to five provinces and have $2-$6 million in revenue.
• Large Regionals cover one to five provinces with $6-$12 million in revenue.
• Nationals operate in more than 5 provinces and have more than $12 million in revenue.

Affiliates
For affiliates (ISP vendors), there are three levels of membership, based on company revenues. (Note: The figures quoted throughout this article are in Canadian dollars. The current exchange rate is about $1 USD = $1.38 CA.)

• Small—under $3 million,
• Medium—$3 to $5 million;
• Large—over $5 million in annual sales.

Benefits of membership
By taking a Consensus position of members, the association attempts to represent the industry as a whole through its board structure. The board consists of 12 members (six national members, three local, and three regional). There are plans to expand the size of the board. In the near future, the board will be expanded to include a seat for every national members plus six seats each to local and regional members.

Members get an opportunity to be part of a collective voice, and they gain access to information about what is happening in the ISP industry in Canada and how that impacts their business. In contributing to the organizational policy consensus, members gain a degree of influence on decisions that impact their ISP business.

Activities
CAIP cites as its greatest accomplishment the success it's had in lobbying for open cable access with the courts and the main regulatory body, the CRTC.

There are three major cable providers in Canada: Rogers, Shaw, and Cogeco. Canadian government policy now mandates that the cable companies open their pipes to access by third party ISPs to create a fair competitive position around this broadband infrastructure. Cable companies have been dragging their feet (no surprise), and CAIPs's ongoing pressure has forced the cable companies to move forward faster than they were apparently willing to do on their own.

The large cable companies have had to file tariffs for proposed rates which are currently under review; in the interim, they have been forced to provide access on a resell basis. (So far, there are no ISPs reselling cable access in Canada.)

Future view
The game plan is that the association will continue to attract new members, thus its revenues will increase (along with revenues from events), which in turn will allow it to slowly grow its staff while helping to increase influence in the marketplace.

Here's what Jay Thomson's crystal ball envisions for the future of the Canadian ISP marketplace:

• An ongoing fight for open access to broadband infrastructure
• Continued industry consolidation
• Increasing pressures to come up with self regulatory responses to content concerns
• More Canadian families coming online as the tools to control porn improve

For more information, you can visit the CAIP's website: http://www.caip.ca/, or call them at 613 232-CAIP (2247), or email them at: president@caip.ca.

To Your ISPs Success!

Christopher ("Sparky") Knight
Founder & Managing Editor of the ISP-Lists Discussion Community

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