Yesterday, in his presentation to the BDU hearings, Gary Smith, the president of Bell Video Group mentioned that DTH has added 1.7M net new subscribers to the broadcast distribution system. That is 1.7M subscribers who did not previously subscribe to cable service.
Satellite is an integral part of providing advanced video service to much of Canada – it provides a competitive choice in urban markets and it brings advanced digital video to those Canadians who live beyond the economic reach of terrestrial cable or IPTV facilities.
Satellite appears to be the only economic means to provide broadband internet to a measurable part of the country. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, armed with government ownership and success in connecting every community over 200 people, Sasktel still can’t reach almost 15% of the population of Saskatchewan, even with fixed wireless as part of its arsenal of solutions.
In the next election, broadband access should find its way onto the party platforms. Satellite-based service will need to be part of the solution.