WOODSTOCK, NB – Xplornet Communications has joined a dozen other Internet service providers in calling on Industry Minister Christian Paradis to allow rural providers to bid for rural broadband spectrum at the next auction.
The group has signed an open letter addressed to the Minister, available here, asking the auction rules to “set aside rural areas from urban areas and deal with them separately”. Broadband providers outside of cities use wireless signals to deliver broadband to rural and remote locations. Under current auction rules, spectrum is sold in large geographic blocks covering both urban and rural areas, making it too expensive for rural ISPs to bid for and buy broadband spectrum.
Without spectrum, rural Canadians could face restrictions on service, fostering a growing divide between the ability of rural and urban Canadians to access Internet service, Xplornet maintains, which would severely impede Canada’s ability to implement a national digital strategy for all its citizens.
"Our request of the Industry Minister is remarkably simple and easy to affect – just sell urban and rural areas separately”, said CEO John Maduri, in a statement. “That will allow cellular providers to buy the urban markets they want, will allow rural ISPs to bid for areas of low population density, and will bring more competition to the marketplace. There simply is no downside to this approach – it will bring more bidders to the auction, may increase revenue for the government, and will ensure that rural Canadians are not left out of Canada’s digital future."
