It can be a fascinating exercise reading comments on news stories and blog posts about the state of Canadian broadband. People can be so passionate about the issue. Sometimes I wonder if some childhood traumatic psychological experience has made some of the writers so hostile. Did a phone company truck run over their bicycle? Maybe an installer drilled a hole through a lucky hockey stick when he was fishing wires through the wall?
Is Canadian broadband being sold to consumers for a lower price per month than what some residents of some countries pay each month?
No.
And I didn’t need OECD rankings or an econometrically-challenged study from Harvard to tell me that. After all, when billions of dollars are thrown by some governments at building network, one would hope that there would be some kind of reduction in the monthly bill paid by consumers.
But let’s not make the mistake of saying that this makes those broadband networks less expensive. Not necessarily. Where do you think that government money came from? At some point, someone is paying the bill. So everytime you look at your paystub or make your monthly tax remittances, give thanks that there isn’t a hidden “broadband network fee” added onto the bill.
Just one of many problems with comparative studies.
This is why an overall literature review is required, to understand why differences exist. Not all experiences can (or should) be replicated.
I think all Canadians can all agree that we want to see continued investment in broadband connectivity: more fibre; more spectrum; more choices of services and packages; and, for solutions to be developed to provide reasonable connectivity to Canadians who are outside the urban corridors.
But we have to ask a number of questions. Given the fiscal realities of our Government in 2010, who is going to invest in new infrastructure? How do we create the right climate for the financial community to back that investment?
As we watch today’s Throne Speech for signals about federal leadership that may guide Canada’s digital future, keep those considerations in mind.
If one looks over the 2009 Financial statements of the big cellular companies and dsl/cable companies in canada, they generally all seem to be in the black, and healthily so. Given the profits they have, they easily can invest in greater access to high speeds from DOCSIS 3.0 and Fibre than they currently have, or even give cheaper access to EVDO data from the cell towers, which would then give many of those in more rural access better access to high speed as well.