OTTAWA — The Conservative caucus issued a call to action on rural Internet by launching its own consultation process Wednesday morning which purports to force the country to meet the CRTC’s 50/10 Mbps universal service objective, everywhere, including rural and remote regions, by 2021.
In 2016, the CRTC set 2030 as the deadline for that particular speed to be made available everywhere in Canada.
“Today’s digital economy means that affordable, reliable access to consistent high-speed internet is a determinant to economic productivity, and individual equality of opportunity. Despite the CRTC designating broadband as an essential service more than 5 years ago, many Canadians in rural and remote regions still do not have consistent access to this essential service,” says Conservative MP and shadow minister for industry and economic development Michelle Rempel Garner, in a statement published today.
Unfortunately, the wording of the background section of the Conservative action plan includes an erroneous definition of broadband, saying: “The CRTC designated broadband as an essential service in 2015, defining broadband to be a 50 megabytes per second (MBPS) download speed and 10 MBPS upload speed.”
Putting aside the mistake regarding megabytes vs. megabits (ahem), as Cartt.ca wrote recently, broadband includes Internet speeds below the CRTC’s 50/10 Mbps service objective. Broadband is not defined as 50/10 specifically although it is a goal the Commission wants to hit and everyone acknowledges there remain rural and remote regions of the country where connectivity is spotty or non-existent. First Nations communities remain a serious challenge.
(Ed note: It is hard to see how Canada would have enough workers, let alone the money, to make 50/10 happen everywhere by 2021.)
That said, the Conservatives today are calling on the federal government “to outline a concrete action plan to address this issue. This plan needs to connect all Canadians by 2021, at the speed benchmark that has been set by CRTC,” says Rempel Garner.
The Conservative consultation document makes several policy recommendations (some of which are already in place, or which the market has already taken care of, and some of which are good ideas), including:
- Recommendation 1: Alleviate Short Term Bandwidth Shortages
- Recommendation 2: Develop a Canadian Broadband Strategy
- Recommendation 3: Local Connectivity Infrastructure Fund
- Recommendation 4: Stop Big Telecoms from Profiting off of Small Business Government Funds
- Recommendation 5: Accurate Reporting, Transparency with Canadians, and Accountability
- Recommendation 6: Simple Consumer Contracts
- Recommendation 7: A Municipal Ownership Model
- Recommendation 8: Changes to Spectrum Auctioning
- Recommendation 9: Addressing Infrastructure Concerns
- Recommendation 10: Industry-Specific Relief in Light of COVID-19
- Recommendation 11: Extension of CRTC Deadlines
- Recommendation 12: Protecting Consumers and Competition Against Predatory Regional Pricing
- Recommendation 13: Incentivize Rural Internet Build Outs Through Licensing
- Recommendation 14: Government Investment
Rempel Garner suggests the rural/urban divide will grow only larger with the installation of 5G networks in urban Canada.
“Despite a commitment to fix this issue, the Liberals have failed to achieve universal network access. Given the urgency of the situation, as so many Canadians are now required to work and attend school from home, bold action is needed,” Rempel Garner says.
“Canada’s telecommunications industry landscape is not competitive enough to incentivize the market to increase speed and access. This is evidenced by the fact that investments in rural broadband by successive governments and incumbent providers over nearly two decades have not solved the problem. Investment is needed, but first the system and the regulatory environment need to change.”
