Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) has filed its official response to the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) call for position papers on the regulation of new media — that is, Internet and portable wireless network broadcasting.

The CWTA represents Canadian cellular, PCS, messaging, mobile radio, fixed wireless and mobile satellite carriers as well as companies that develop and produce products and services for the industry.

In it’s filing, the CWTA echoes calls from other new media stakeholders, stressing, “the importance of maintaining the exemption orders for new media broadcasting undertakings and mobile television broadcasting undertakings.”

The CWTA issues a veiled warning to the CRTC to maintain it’s current hands-off stance with respect to new media:

“The growth and innovation in the wireless industry is largely the result of government policies encouraging healthy and robust competition among operators, and the Commission’s deliberate decisions to forbear and exempt the sector from regulation. This open, competitive environment has driven the industry to invest heavily in networks that reach 98 per cent of the population. These networks represent a key building block of the Canadian economy and help increase productivity for all industries.”

Upcoming CRTC hearings into regulation of new media broadcasting are being watched closely by players in that industry worldwide, as regulators in other countries are expected to take their cue from the decisions arising from the Canadian process.

The full text of the CWTA submission to the CRTC is available at the Association Web site.