TORONTO – The CEO of rural broadband provider Xplornet issued an industry-wide challenge to his fellow carriers Wednesday, asking them to commit to developing their networks so they can offer broadband speeds of 100 Mbps to 100% of Canadians by 2020.
The company, which serves over 600,000 Canadians who live and work outside or on the fringes of urban centres, has already made strides in boosting speeds beyond the 5 Mbps which CRTC and the federal government currently consider as the minimum threshold for broadband. All of Xplornet’s footprint (meaning, all of Canada, since its fixed wireless and satellites cover coast to coast to coast) can receive at least 5 Mbps. As Allison Lenehan, the CEO, noted, rural-dwelling Canadians want the same online advantages as their city-dwelling counterparts.
“It remains critical that rural Canadians have access to reliable and affordable Internet through a fixed home connection, just like urban Canadians. It is not okay to say having mobile access is ‘good enough’ for rural broadband,” he said.
“The definition of broadband is shifting. And it is time to take another leap forward.”
That leap for the company is its already-announced intention of making 25 Mbps available across the whole country by 2017, matching programs like the U.K.’s Superfast program and the FCC’s newly stated broadband minimum speed. In New Brunswick and Alberta, Xplornet already offers 10 Mbps with 250 GB of data for $60/month and 25 Mbps with 500 GB of data/month at $90.
These speeds “means Canadians – urban and rural – can enjoy comparable access to the Internet. It means rural Canadians can enjoy Netflix, Shomi and CraveTV. Like everyone else, they can update their countless devices with the latest Apple operating systems. In short, they can enjoy the Internet, and live where they want to live,” said Lenehan.
“Just imagine how Canada could leap-frog the world.” – Allison Lenehan, Xplornet
Broadband demands from consumers will only grow over time. They will want more data and, of course, higher speeds – something he said all Canadians should have access to. So, “I am encouraging the industry, as a whole, to prepare for the next phase. By investing in new technologies, we believe as an industry, we can raise the bar one more time,” he explained. “By 2020, it should be our intention to deliver at least 100Mbps to all rural Canadians.”
“As a nation, Our goal should be 100% of Canadians, participating in the digital world, with 100% having access, to at least 100Mbps of speed by 2020. Just imagine how Canada could leap-frog the world.”
The overall broadband question is not just about speeds, but also about adoption – that is, convincing the 20% of Canadian households Lenehan says are not connected, even though they are passed by broadband networks in cities or beyond, to log on. “A lot of time and money has been spent on building infrastructure. But the next challenge, from both a policy and industry perspective, is understanding why all Canadians are not adopting Internet at home and at work,” he said.
“There is a gap. A meaningful gap for our country” and the industry has to figure out how to close that gap and convince all Canadians to participate in the digital economy.
