LET’S TALK TV: TekSavvy says telecom and broadcast rulings clash; bandwidth costs prohibitive for new BDU service

By Perry Hoffman

GATINEAU – Independent ISP TekSavvy Solutions told the CRTC Tuesday it would love to become a broadcast distributor because that’s what its customers are asking, but added it can’t enter the game at the moment because the cost of bandwidth is simply too high.According to a study from Nordicity, the bandwidth costs for the ISP to provide basic service would come to $80 if networked PVR capability was included. “That’s just the bandwidth - before we pay for content or anything else,” said TekSavvy CEO Marc Gaudrault in his opening remarks to the Commission’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing.He delved...