You have heard of FTTN [fibre to the node], FTTC [fibre to the curb], FTTH [fibre to the home]. How about FTTM: Fibre to the Moose?
The Telecom Policy Review panel has endorsed broadband access to be ubiquitously available by the year 2010. Their definition of ubiquity is for broadband access to be as available as the telephone. It is a noble objective but it may prove to be costly.
One of the questions, of course, is what kinds of technology are considered to be broadband. Is satellite good enough? If not, this has a risk of being a prohibitively costly initiative.
I note that Sasktel, an incumbent carrier owned by its provincial government, has had an aggressive program to roll-out broadband to every community greater than 200 people and every school, police station, etc. Yet Sasktel’s broadband still misses about 20% of their population.
We’ll be hearing from Sasktel and other regional broadband initiatives at The Canadian Telecom Summit.