Three years ago, I wrote a piece that (unfortunately) is as relevant today as it was then.

I commented then that it is one thing to bring broadband internet to the masses, but how do we make them drink from the fountain of knowledge?

One of the challenges, of course, is that the industry has not yet sold turn-key applications that capture the imaginations of the unconnected. Surprising as it seems, email, Facebook, file swapping and web surfing have not yet attracted 100% of the population.

[Note that Twitter had not yet warranted a mention 3 years ago.]

I observed:

Are there some applications that might lend themselves to a toll-free model in order to reach the rest of the market?

For example, would home health care warrant installing a broadband connection as part of a monitoring service? The broadband access would be enabling underlying service, but the costs would be incurred by the health care agency, not the infirmed. Like toll-free calling, the application provider would pay the charges.

Your aging grandmother may have no idea that she would have a broadband connection coming into her apartment – perhaps complete with a wireless router. All she would know is that she can stay at home for routine monitoring check-ups.

Besides health care and elder-care, what other applications might “reverse-the-charges” for broadband access? Security services? Gaming? Entertainment? Energy management?

Among other considerations such as driving more universal connectivity, a reverse-the-charges model might put a very different spin on net neutrality – these applications will be asking the ISPs to bill them for a specific kind of access.

If Telemedicine has so many economic benefits, should provincial health plans be paying to install broadband with vital sign or blood sugar monitors into the homes of unconnected individuals with compromised health conditions?

Should our social services safety net include benefits to provide a computer and broadband to households with school age children?

We have the means to identify those Canadians that need government intervention to ensure affordable internet for all.

The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE) went over the top yesterday, perhaps euphoric that Canada’s proposed anti-spam bill (C-28) received support in its review by the House Industry, Science and Technology Committee.

It has an article linking spam to kidnapping, theft and rape.

Kidnap. Rape. There are no lesser words that can be used to describe what happened to the daughter of an anti-spam investigator in Russia.

His daughter was recently released, according to Joseph Menn’s recent article on Boing Boing, after having been kidnapped from her home five years ago, fed drugs, and made to service men, as a warning to ward off further investigations.

The criminals behind these vicious acts were also responsible for large spamming organization associated with Russian Mob activity.

That’s why CAUCE believes we need to ban legitimate Canadian businesses from sending you an email asking if you want to get notified of upcoming sales and promotions.

As I have written before, Canada is on the verge of banning electronic communications that are perfectly legal in paper form (and actually encouraged by Canada Post).

The CAUCE article goes on to say that most spam is sent by organized criminal gangs, just like other organized crimes. I agree completely.

Why then are we so comfortable with restrictions on other emails. This bill goes farther than necessary and will be an inhibitor in efficiencies enabled by electronic commerce.

Why haven’t more groups vocalized the danger of legislation so broad that it will impinge upon choice of communications.

Where would you have guessed that Canada’s fastest consumer internet is available? Downtown Toronto?

No. How about the 3 main cities in New Brunswick?

Yesterday, Bell Aliant launched Canada’s fastest broadband service: FibreOP 170/30, which offers, as the name implies, 170 Mbps download with 30 Mbps upload.

The service will be initially priced at close to $250 per month, so it is clearly not for everyone, but Bell Aliant has a wide range of other broadband service offerings:

• High-Speed: 1.5Mbps – $34.95
• High-Speed Ultra: 7 Mbps – $39.95
• High-Speed Max: 13 Mbps – $49.95
• FibreOP Internet 25/5: 25 Mbps – $77.95
• FibreOP Internet 70/15: 70 Mbps – $107.95

FibreOP services and bundles are currently available to Bell Aliant customers in the extended regions of greater Fredericton, greater Saint John and greater Moncton. Bell Aliant does not currently use any kind of technical traffic management on their broadband network, such as shaping, or throttling and there is no download cap.

As such, Bell Aliant takes the title of Canada’s fastest broadband service away from Videotron, which has been offering 120 Mbps download (20 Mbps upload) service for about $150 per month. But we note that Shaw has been trialing a gigabit service.

What are the applications that will justify these ultra-high speed services for residential customers?

Will some people set up an informal sharing group to power gaming, video streaming and cloud based file services for their entire neighbourhood?

---

The CRTC public hearing on the Obligation to Serve and Universal Service Obligation continues today, with the action taking place in the CRTC’s usual home at the Conference Centre in Gatineau. Last week’s proceedings in Timmins was a northern economic stimulus program with a temporary surge in revenues for the local Walmart, since airlines decided that the witnesses and Commissioners really didn’t need their luggage.

But that is another story, perhaps better suited for a retirement bash (“remember that time we were in Timmins with no change of clothes?”).

The focus in these hearings so far has been on whether to set a national broadband objective – an aspirational target with no teeth – or to expand the current local phone subsidy regime in order to include subsidies for broadband for service in lower density population areas.

This week’s hearing agenda opens with an eclectic mix; witnesses today will include a major ILEC, a group of major cable companies, a group of smaller independent ISPs and a consumer group. The first phase wraps up on Tuesday with appearances by another mix of interests, including the Liberal Industry critic. The rebuttal phase opens on Wednesday.

I wonder if any of the groups will examine the level of broadband adoption in urban areas.

Last week, I wrote about the digital divide that exists between households of varying income.

The emphasis in these CRTC hearings has been on expanding the reach of wireline broadband to the 5% of Canadians in rural and remote regions that lack a terrestrial broadband choice. But, Statistics Canada data shows that there are far more lower income Canadians that have apparently chosen to put food on their table or buy winter boots for their kids, rather than buy a computer and subscribe to broadband. Where is their spokesperson?

The UK announced a plan in January to provide free laptop computers for low income families. I wrote about that kind of idea two years earlier:

Maybe Canada needs to look at targeting broadband subsidies based on income, regardless of where people live. There is a gap in the level of connectedness among lower income Canadians in urban markets as well. Maybe it is time to consider making PCs and broadband part of our social welfare system.

Should we only be looking at rural versus urban subsidy schemes, instead of targeting those who really need help regardless of where they live?

The UK communications industry regulator, Ofcom, has issued its latest media literacy bulletin [pdf, 383KB], including news of initiatives to increase digital literacy.

There is an article about an initiative called First Click, launched by the BBC, in partnership with the Post Office. It is described as “a major media literacy campaign to encourage those who have never used the internet to take the first steps to get online.”

The bulletin also describes a new social networking safety programme, Safe, for primary schools and a project called Fix the Web, that aims to use crowd sourcing to improve accessibility for visually impaired users.

Increased broadband penetration by stimulating demand. What a novel concept!