In comments to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage looking at Canada and the New Media, Michael Geist recycled a sound bite about satellite broadband that he must have thought was clever when he first used it as part of his criticism of our report on the state of broadband in Canada (Lagging or Leading).
When asked to comment in response to the issue of the digital divide, Professor Geist seemed to imply that rural Canadians are better off with no broadband than wireless or satellite based service.
I don’t think that satellite works either. I think that anyone who thinks that satellite is an effective alternative should be required to use it. And then we’d see just how effective it is as an alternative.
It came across as cute and helped him get a laugh from some members of the committee. But his testimony was an insult to millions of Canadians who live beyond the footprint of cable, DSL and fibre networks.
More than a million Canadians have two choices – either glacial dial up, or true high-speed satellite-based broadband. Satellite-based broadband is already delivering always-on megabit service and investments are in place for high throughput next generation satellites to be launched next year.
There is no other technology that can provide a broadband experience to virtually every home in Canada – and do it today.
In relation to Professor Geist’s comment, there are millions of Canadians who are required to use satellite, use dial-up or wait decades for a wireline alternative. The hundreds of thousands of Canadians who already rely on satellite service have determined that satellite is an effective alternative.
We totally agree with your comments that rural folks should investigate satellite as a viable means of high speed broadband internet access.
We have been using the new xplornet business satellite within FOX GROUP for our digital video type applications and general web surfing for over a year, and have been very pleased with the results.
It is obvious that Professor Geist has not tried to work from locations that are challenged to get DSL or cable broadband service, or even seen the performance results from current broadband satellite services. Perhaps he should keep his ‘cute comments’ to other situations that don’t affect Canadian businesses or consumers. Those of us in rural Canada have as much need or even more for broadband access as the city subscribers, even though we have to pay more, depending on the provider.
Mark,
Perhaps you should disclose that you are longtime registered lobbyist for Barrett Xplore, the broadband satellite provider, and sit on its board of directors.
Mark,
This is completely misleading. Anyone who takes the time to listen to feed or reads the transcript once available, will see that I was responding to a question about the digital divide. My response was to urge government to play a role here. I argued that the market alone would not solve access issues (much like the Telecom Policy Review Panel concluded) and that wireless and satellite services were not a substitute for guaranteed broadband in all Canadian communities. I concluded by citing the need for an updated universal service obligation for broadband, much like Sheridan Scott raised this weekend at the Can150 conference.
These comments are not an insult to millions of Canadians who use dialup or satellite (including some of my family members who live in rural communities). Rather, it is designed to encourage elected officials to support those communities by helping to offer more than just dialup and satellite. If there is an insult, it is that your role as a registered lobbyist and director for satellite provider Barrett Xplore goes undisclosed in your cheerleading post.
MG
Yes a blog about telecom trends from a canadian perspective written by a lobbyist for the telcos makes a lot of these posts totally biased and unfair given the conflict of interest is seldom revealed by the poster.
On topic, I was one of those users of satellite broadband, $115/month for sometimes a 1mpbs connection which would go out all of the time because of weather is not a good alternative to dsl/cable internet. Wireless options from the cell companies will be much more competitive I think. I currently use an evdo connection card and save quite a bit of money and have a faster and higher quality connection than the satellite gave me. Enough so that I was willing to pay the ETF of a couple of hundred dollars to break the contract.