The Government of Ontario has released details on its Rural Connections program: The Ontario Municipal Rural Broadband Partnership Program Guidelines.
The description of the program is somewhat confusing, leading me to wonder if the province is being advised by an agenda seeking to introduce symmetry into rural broadband connections when most urban customers seem to do just fine with asymmetric access. Citing the 2001 Report of the National Broadband Task Force, the preamble for Ontario’s program says
Based on today’s technology and applications, high-speed broadband is defined as a high-capacity, two-way link between end user and access network suppliers capable of supporting full-motion interactive video applications. A minimum symmetrical speed of 1.5 megabits per second per individual user is currently required to support these applications
The actual program requirements only require a minimum 1.5Mb download speed. Municipalities have until July 13 to get their applications into the province. The province will fund up to $1M of the project, as long as the money can be spent this fiscal year – by March, 2008.
The Ontario Municipal Rural Broadband Partnership Program will develop broadband infrastructure to provide connectivity to residents, businesses, and public institutions in rural areas that currently do not have access to high-speed Internet services, providing a foundation for growth and innovation. The infrastructure tendering process must be technology neutral, require open access, have a minimum download speed of 1.5 Mbps, and must be scalable.
If this program is truly technology neutral, I wonder how can any area be considered to lack access to broadband defined as 1.5 Mbps service?
As I have written before, my friends at Barrett Xplore have put all of Canada within reach of this kind of connectivity.