By Ahmad Hathout
The province of British Columbia wants the CRTC to stop treating with confidence granular broadband mapping information not designated as such by internet service providers.
The province filed a Part 1 application this month asking the CRTC to stop treating connectivity coverage data down to the 250-meter road segment as confidential if ISPs don’t treat it such. That information includes who services those areas and with what technology and speed.
It is asking that this information cease being deemed confidential and be made public or allowed to be made public in a way that can be searchable by address, such as on Innovation Canada’s national broadband map.
The province is also asking that the rest of the data considered confidential “be shared through ISED’s mapping team with [B.C.] on a confidential basis for [B.C.] use in support of any existing or future contribution programs, including a right to make public any such data at a similar level of granularity or aggregation as the CRTC or ISED makes public.”
The reason for the request, according to the province, is to ensure it can provide all of its households access to the federal objective speeds of 50 Mbps download and 10 upload by 2027.
“Access to broadband, mobile wireless, and transport coverage information is key to ensuring that the Ministry is able to identify the final homes that require high-speed connectivity,” it said in the application. “Knowledge of existing infrastructure is also critical to be able to responsibly and diligently negotiate projects and allocate public funds to the expansion of access to reliable and adequate telecommunications services.
“While the Ministry could ask individual internet and wireless telecommunication service providers to provide their data, this would be inefficient and unnecessarily burdensome for both the Ministry and telecommunications service providers to duplicate the collection by the CRTCand the federal government of similar data,” it said. “Such ad hoc process would also risk resulting incomplete or dated data.”
It added that the request is consistent with the objectives outlined in the latest policy direction from cabinet, specifically section 17 (b) (iii): “taking measures to promote clarity and transparency of pricing information and service plan characteristics in service providers’ marketing materials.”
The province argues, “Consumers have an interest in knowing whether high-speed internet or mobile wireless services are available or competitively available in the area in which they would like to use such services.”
