OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is launching an inquiry to examine the impact of satellite services on the quality and cost of providing telecommunications services to the country’s northern and remote communities.
The inquiry, to be led by CRTC Commissioner Candice Molnar, will focus on communities in remote regions that are served solely by satellite.
As part of a decision released last December concerning a four-year modernization plan of Northwestel’s broadband internet and wireless services for certain areas of northern Canada, the CRTC identified a digital divide between communities that receive these services over terrestrial networks, such as fibre cable and microwave links, and those that are served solely by satellite.
The inquiry will examine the current and future availability of satellite capacity needed for transport services, pricing of satellite services, and the competitive options available to telecommunications service providers that rely on such technologies to provide telecommunications services to Canadians. It will also consider other costs, including ancillary equipment such as ground stations, associated with the use of satellite transport services.
“This inquiry will help us better understand the state of satellite services used to provide telecommunications services to certain communities and further help achieve an important goal: provide Canadians in remote regions with access to telecommunications services that are comparable to those available in the rest of the country,” said CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais in a release.
The CRTC is accepting submissions on this inquiry until Feb. 19, 2014. Commissioner Molnar is expected to complete her review and report her findings to the Commission by October 2014.
