A number of recent announcements of projects to deliver ultra-high speed internet have surfaced in recent weeks, ranging from Bell’s FTTH roll-out in Quebec City, Novus 200 Mbps offering in Vancouver and Shaw planning gigabit trials in its territory.
All of these point to a climate of substantial investment driven by competition looking for differentiation by enhancing the internet speeds available to their customers.
The investments aren’t limited to just urban centres. Barrett Xplore has announced [here and here] investments in next generation high throughput satellite capacity in order to bring advanced services to rural and remote markets.
As the CRTC works through the filings in the essential services proceeding, and the deferral account implementation plans [3 files: implementation, competitor access, and consumer rebate], it needs to be cognizant of potential unintended consequences of its policies: chilling a fragile investment climate.
Competition appears to be working, with facilities based carriers driving investment in more advanced broadband facilities, delivering faster speeds to consumers. Our governments are out of money and, as I have written before, governments don’t have a great track record at maintaining and operating infrastructure.
What are the right policies to continue to provide encouragement to the private sector?
“What are the right policies to continue to provide encouragement to the private sector?”
Opening network access to all providers would be a good start, don’t you think?