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Wednesday June 22, 2011 |
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The OECD has released a new
study
on national broadband plans that finds that Canada is one of the few
countries without government-backed targets for broadband access and
speeds.
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Saturday June 11, 2011 |
The Conservative Party has passed a policy resolution on broadband at
its policy convention. The resolution states:
The Conservative Party recognizes the
vital importance of internet connectivity to full Canadian
participation in global economic, social, and cultural communities. The
government should create an environment that encourages private sector
investment to increase broadband infrastructure, especially in rural
and remote areas of Canada.
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Tuesday June 07, 2011 |
The Conservatives hold their convention
later this week with 80
resolutions
being considered for possible debate in the plenary session. The
resolutions are proposed by local chapters and at least two focus on
Internet access and net neutrality. Resolution P-063 (Durham) on
broadband states:
We believe in the need for a strong
Internet link to Canada together in the 21st Century, as
railroads did in the 19th Century and
aviation did in the 20th Canada must claim a leading position in an
increasingly networked world.
The Conservative Party will:
i) Support internet broadband
initiatives, to bring universal access to all Canadians, especially in
rural and Northern communities
ii) Support an open and accessible
internet with appropriate safeguards and enforcement mechanisms
against illegal activities.
iii) Support network neutrality,
giving each user a fair share of bandwidth to use in communicating with
any other user with any protocol.
iv) We support an innovative and
competitive market place while promoting private sector infrastructure
investment.
v) We support initiatives promoting
telepresence and telecommuting to overcome geographical barriers.
Resolution P-064 (Wild Rose) states:
The Conservative Party recognizes the
vital importance of internet connectivity to full Canadian
participation in global economic, social, and cultural communities. The
government should create an environment that encourages private sector
investment to increase broadband infrastructure, especially in rural
and remote areas of Canada.
Only a limited number of the resolutions will be considered in plenary.
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Friday May 06, 2011 |
The CRTC issued its universal
service decision
this week, which included analysis of funding mechanisms for
broadband access, broadband speed targets, and whether there should be
a requirement to provide broadband access as part of any basic service
objective. Consumers groups and many observers were left disappointed.
The CRTC declined to establish new funding mechanisms (relying on
market forces) or changes to basic service and hit on a target of 5
Mbps download speed (actual not advertised) to be universally available
by the end of 2015. Critics argued this left consumers on their own
and suggested that the targets were underwhelming, particularly when
contrasted with other countries.
While I sympathize with the frustration over the CRTC's decision to
essentially make broadband a "watching brief," I wonder why Canadians
should expect the CRTC to lead on broadband targets and funding.
Universal access to globally competitive broadband (in
terms of speed, pricing, and consumer choice) is a perhaps the most
important digital policy issue Canada faces and it should not be viewed
through a narrow telecom regulatory lens.
Rather, it is a government policy issue, one that requires a serious
commitment by elected officials. With a new Conservative majority
government, the era of excuses (the Liberals did nothing, minority
governments make this issue too difficult) are over. Given the fixed
date for elections, there are roughly 1,500 days left in the
Conservative mandate. July 2015 provides the real target date for
addressing the competitive and access concerns associated with Canadian
broadband.
It provides four years to open the market to new competitors,
facilitate
the introduction of new wireless broadband alternatives, encourage the
market to offer fibre connections in all major markets, foster new
local competitors, leverage the role of high speed research and
education networks, consider using spectrum auction proceeds to fund
broadband initiatives, and address anti-competitive pricing models. It
allows the government to set a realistic but ambitious target for
broadband speed, pricing, and competition that allows Canada to reverse
a decade of decline and once again become a global leader. Canadians
can look at the benchmarks today in terms of current access, pricing,
competition, and global ranking and use them to judge the change
over the next 1,500 days. This is the challenge for the government -
not the CRTC - and the clock is running.
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