SWIFT outlines its top five lessons
By Greg O’Brien
OTTAWA – The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, which continues its study on the accessibility and affordability of telecom services, must now be inured to overheated rhetoric, but Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau took it a bit further on Tuesday.
After, rightly, singing his own company’s praises when it comes to connecting Quebecers, spending billions on home internet and delivering serious wireless competition in the province and then taking his usual swings at Bell Canada’s “obstruction”, he took aim at third party internet service providers, saying they deliver “zero” in the way of network investment and generally interfere with the ISP marketplace.
However, later in his presentation under questioning, the CEO’s rhetoric crossed a line, especially since his own company aims to offer TV and broadband services as a reseller.
When asked about the industry and his company’s thoughts and actions since the CRTC’s August 2019 decision to set third party ISP wholesale rates (Bell cut its rural rollout by 17% and Quebecor’s Videotron withdrew an ultra-high speed broadband tier so it wouldn’t have to make it available to TPIA providers) by Conservative Quebec MP Bernard Généreux, the Quebecor CEO had this to say, in French (Ed note: Sometimes the live translation can be jumbled, so we had this passage translated by a professional, after the fact):
“For decades, Québec and Canada have benefited from of a telecommunication system of a really high level and I think it is extremely important for the productivity of our enterprises and you have many in your riding and you are right to mention in parts of your riding Vidéotron offers a high-quality service and these investments were disbursed in the past and will have to be in the future. If we face resellers, whose only mission is to parasite the systems in which have been invested in by incumbents, we are harming this capacity and the means of continued investments to offer a superior level of quality to the businesses and to residential customers.”
(Ed note: The live translator quoted Péladeau saying resellers “behave like leeches” instead of “parasite the system”.)
Responded Généreux: “So, what you are telling me Mr. Péladeau, is that the people you call parasites, what I would call resellers, these people do not invest in infrastructure, it is not their core business. That is what you are saying and the fact that they do not invest in infrastructure penalizes you, who are investing a lot of money in infrastructure?”
Péladeau then went on to answer he doesn’t object to the existence of resellers – which was good to hear, since Videotron is providing service in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, as a reseller – just that the CRTC’s wholesale rates decision was wrong. The Supreme Court will announce Thursday morning whether it will hear the appeal of that decision by the incumbents (including Videotron).
Update: Videotron has between 3,000 and 4,000 subscribers now in Rouyn and Val-d’Or, Quebec, operating as a TPIA on Bell Canada’s Cablevision-branded network, said company executives during Quebecor’s fourth quarter conference call with financial analysts Thursday morning.
THE COMMITTEE ALSO heard from Barry Field, executive director of Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT), about the fibre networks it is funding in the Niagara-Windsor-Bruce Peninsula triangle and what future rural internet builds can learn from its experiences.
“The SWIFT 1.0 project has exceeded the premises target by 26%, the fibre construction target by 30% and the private sector investment target by 93%. By all measures, this regional project has been an overwhelming success, yet a tremendous amount of work remains,” he said.
Field outlined five things the organization has learned while it tries to deliver broadband to 50,000 un-or underserved homes and businesses by 2023.
- “One size does not fit all,” he said. Geographic differences between regions in Canada means a single model is impossible. “We need to consider differences in settlement patterns, availability of data, and existing broadband market dynamics to name a few… The variability of settlement patterns in combination with existing market dynamics has a substantial impact on who provides existing services, and how they can expand service.”
- “All ISPs, regardless of their size, have a part to play in helping us solve the problem,” he went on. Sometimes, small ISPs are better suited to provide service to certain areas.
- “All three levels of government must co-operate and work together,” said Field. This is a complaint many have made. Programs at each of the federal, provincial and municipal levels can make it difficult for ISPs to access funding when the three aren’t working together. In Southwestern Ontario today, “there are no less than five active government programs, all trying to solve the same problem in the same geography,” he added.
- Since one size doesn’t fit all, technology choices should be a regional decision, according to Field. “The variability of settlement patterns and market dynamics between regions will influence the feasibility of filling the gap with fibre versus wireless and low earth orbit, or LEO, technologies.”
- Despite the billions being directed at rural broadband, we need more money, he said. “In Southwestern Ontario alone, we require approximately $1 billion worth of investment above and beyond the current programs in order to reach the target of 95% of the population served. The current commitment from the federal government, while substantial, is simply not enough to solve the problem.” (Southwestern Ontario MPs recently made that case directly to ISED Minister Francois Champagne in a letter supporting SWIFT’s next phase.)
The committee is not done studying telecom and broadband, but its attention is turning to the potential for made-in-Canada Covid vaccines at its meeting today.
