Obligation to Serve: Broadband obligation will wreck small ISPs - and what about that doughnut?

By Perry Hoffman

GATINEAU – Expanding the basic service objective to include broadband would have substantial negative financial impacts on their businesses, a group of small independent ISPs told the CRTC on Monday during the fourth day of hearings into the obligation to serve and other telecom matters. This is the second week of the hearing, which moved back to Gatineau after three days in Timmins, Ont.David Buffet, president of Radiant Communications Corp., said that creating a new subsidy regime to fund broadband expansion would turn a slight profit the company generated in 2009 to a net loss. Revenue last year amounted to about...