The Federal government has released details about its latest attempt to
increase broadband (high-speed Internet) coverage in rural and remote of Canada.
Industry Canada calls the program Connecting
Canadians - Digital Canada 150 (CCDC150) The 150 refers to the sesquicentennial
in 2017 of the Canadian Confederation.
The overall program website touts a number of recent and ongoing programs
but this blog entry will only comment on the broadband (high-speed Internet) aspects
of the program. In addition, I based these comments on an initial review of the
site and I am sure additional details will become available over the coming
days and weeks.
It appears the CCDC150 signals a change of policy from previous federal
funding programs. In the CCDC150 approach, the federal government will deal
directly with private sector Internet Service Providers (ISP). In the past, the government
has dealt through "champion" intermediaries such as municipalities,
not-for-profit (NFP) organizations, and community based networks (CBN) or
innovations centres. For the most part, they tried to stay at arms length from the
private sector ISPs. There are separate sections on the website for
"Canadian and Communities" and "ISPs".
Another change from previous programs is there is no direct tie-in to
provincial programs. NOHFC still has a number
of program that have a technology theme and it might be possible for some of he
conventional champions to work with the private sector ISPs which could result in some form of stacked funding - provincial on top of
federal - as seen in the past.
The heart of the CCDC150 program is $305 million of federal funding. I
find the wording on the how and when they
will spend the funds a bit confusing so I will quote from the website:-
"From
the launch of Connecting Canadians in summer 2014 until 2017, the Government of Canada will invest up to $305 million
over five years to extend high-speed Internet service to
280,000 households in rural and remote regions of the country that
currently have slower or no
Internet access."[1]
The program defines broadband (high-speed Internet) as 5Mbps (assumed to
be download speed). When the program is completed, "98% of Canadian
households will have access to at least 5 Mbps."
The program does not place any restrictions on the technologies that the
ISPs can or cannot use. The ISPs are
free to propose terrestrial (cable or copper) wireless (mobile or fixed), satellite
or any combination there of.
The website states CCDC150 has two major
geographical areas called components; "a rural component that will expand
high-speed Internet service to rural and remote areas across Canada and a
northern component that will extend and augment capacity in northern
communities in Nunavut and the Nunavik region of Quebec."
There are other details, many of which
are positive but in my opinion, there are a number of omissions in the public documentation
to date.
Perhaps the most glaring is the complete
lack of reference to any prices or monthly costs to the end user. We now have enough
experience with mobile wireless broadband (high-speed Internet) data hubs to
know that the monthly fees are close to unaffordable to an average rural family.
There is also no mention of how, when,
and by whom the 5 Mbps is measured and confirmed. In addition will the ISPs
have to provide a consistent 5 mbps or better speed regardless of the number of users on-line
at the same time. Again, we have enough experience with wireless Internet (Mobile,
fixed and satellite) to know that network congestion makes the systems close to
unusable at peak hours i.e. 4:00 PM to midnight.
I will be returning to this subject matter over the coming days.
[1] $305 million works out
to $1080.00 per household.
Thanks for the thoughtful and condensed overview of this new program
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