You will recall that in April, Australia announced plans to spend A$43B (around $40B in Canadian funds) on broadband. That money, to be spent over the next 8 years, is to get a network capable of delivering 100Mbps service to 90% of the population, and the rest of the country will get served by next generation wireless and satellite service.
Well, guess what Canada? We’ve won.
According the CRTC’s 2009 Communications Monitoring Report, 94% of Canadian households can already get a terrestrial broadband service. 80% of us can be reached by cable modem service; 84% can get DSL. Most of Canada’s cable companies have now launched DOCSIS 3.0 based service, with data rates up to 100 Mbps available.
The rest of us are already within reach of wireless and satellite.
The private sector is delivering more service, to more Canadians, with competitive choice of suppliers, without government intervention and without taxpayer cash and without us having to wait 8 years.
With the announcement of the next steps for Canada’s $225M broadband stimulus package due any day now, a question remains how should the money should be spent to stimulate higher rates of adoption?
Improving broadband adoption requires a focus on more than just building more terrestrial availability. Customers have to see the value of subscribing. I have written before about leading a horse to water… [here and here].
Everyone who wants broadband internet in Canada can have it – but at what price. How can we help make rural broadband more affordable and accessible? How do we convince more users to take a drink?
Update [September 1, 11:10 am]
Industry Canada has now released its Call for Applications.