Broadband access a ‘basic’ service requiring additional resources for rural development
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Broadband access a ‘basic’ service, Senate panel says
Government urged to use money from sale of wireless licences to finance Internet access in rural and remote areas
By Iain Marlow and Omar El Akkad - June 17, 2010
The government of Canada should ensure all Canadians have access to “basic and essential digital services” such as broadband Internet, a Senate committee has concluded.
The government should use proceeds from the sale of wireless licences to pay for broadband Internet in rural and remote locations across the country, the standing Senate committee on transport and communications said in a report tabled Wednesday.
“There’s a disproportion between what the government collects and what they spend on broadband,” said Dennis Dawson, chair of the committee. “There has to be a better way.”
The transition from analog to digital TV will free up valuable wireless spectrum in the next two years. The last government auction, which sold off less valuable spectrum, put $4.25-billion in government coffers. But the government’s broadband Internet stimulus fund to extend service to remote areas was only $225-million.
Michael Hennessy, Telus Corp.’s senior vice-president for government and regulatory affairs, has long argued that the government lacks the funds to properly roll broadband across the whole country. “There’s a ton of things going on in the marketplace that are moving faster than what the government’s doing,” he said. “We’re doing what we do best in Canada: talk.”
The senators originally set out in March, 2009, to study Canada’s wireless sector, but broadened its mandate to “the broader focus on a digital society.”
The panel said Canada should follow the lead of Estonia, which implemented a digital strategy a dozen years before Canada began consultations on the topic. “During this twelve year period, Estonia introduced paperless cabinet meetings, e-voting, digital IDs, online and secure citizen access to government files,” the report noted, adding that 97 per cent of Estonians now file their tax returns on-line.
The committee’s main recommendation focuses on the breadth, rather than top-end quality, of Internet access in Canada.
“The government should not focus on super-fast broadband speeds or on certain advanced technologies (such as fibre optics). To do so is expensive, can overlap private-sector investment and can widen digital divides,” the report states.
“Instead, the government should determine the broadband speed required to access basic digital services (health, education or other online services, whether provided by the public or private sector), and focus government policy on bringing this broadband speed to all Canadians.
“Canada is a vast, sparsely populated country, with extremes in climate and terrain. But Canada's geography is a challenge, not an excuse.”