The reality of rural

Much has been written about the way countries other than Canada are investing billions of tax dollars upgrading telecommunications infrastructure in creative business models.

Government cash injections for information networking makes for good photo opportunities and allows politicians to show constituents how much they “get it”, all the while making references to how their teen-aged kids have so much more technological aptitude.

But looking at recent news articles, it should be apparent that we will not likely be able to deliver affordable terrestrial broadband to every household – at least not in my lifetime. And this isn’t because Canada is only investing $225M versus the A$43B (roughly C$40B) from Australia.

Two stories caught my eye last week. First was confirmation that Australia will be using satellite to finish the job of providing universal access to broadband, spending nearly a billion dollars to invest in two Ka band satellites.

The other news item was that the UK is not going to meet the aggressive timetable for universal broadband connectivity by 2012, an objective that it had set out just a few months ago.

So in Australia, tens of billions of dollars won’t get fibre to the home for everyone; satellite will connect up to 10% of their households. And in the UK, with much higher population densities, there is now a recognition that broadband connectivity isn’t as easy to accomplish as simply making an announcement.

On the other hand, we have seen the private sector in Canada investing in satellite broadband, having realized that there is no other realistic choice in the foreseeable future for many rural and remote residents.

We can continue to have parliamentary and senate committees study alternatives forever, and have armchair critics pontificate about how Canada is woefully underserved while we flush hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defy the geographic realities that define our national demographics. Or, we can be more pragmatic, and accept that not all Canadians will have the same technology powering their choices for broadband service.

Satellite works way better than dial-up for every application and it delivers a more than adequate broadband solution for almost every on-line requirement. 

In the past couple weeks, the federal government spent more than $1000 per household passed in order to make broadband available to a few select communities in BC, Alberta and Ontario.

How many households could receive lower cost satellite service if the government developed a direct user subsidy? Is it time for Canada to develop a national satellite strategy?