{"id":12317,"date":"2018-10-22T05:33:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T09:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=12317"},"modified":"2018-10-19T06:34:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T10:34:38","slug":"isnt-some-broadband-better-than-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=12317","title":{"rendered":"Isn\u2019t some broadband better than nothing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is a piece I wrote for the National Newswatch Opinion page<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t some kind of broadband better than nothing?<\/p>\n

The CRTC thinks so. And I agree.<\/p>\n

When the Commission released its plans for its $750M Broadband Development Fund earlier this fall, it decided that it would accept applications to provide broadband service at download speeds of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) and 5 Mbps up, despite having previously announced an aspirational target for all Canadians to eventually be able to get twice those speeds.<\/p>\n

Activists wrongly claimed that the Commission had cut its objectives in half from the bold universal service objective set less than 2 years ago. Indeed an opinion piece at cbc.ca<\/a> asked, \u201cWhy would service providers hold themselves to CRTC targets when the CRTC itself won\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact is, in its 2016 policy, the CRTC itself recognized that \u201cin some underserved areas, achieving the objective will likely need to be accomplished in incremental steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newest CRTC policy isn\u2019t making any kind of a change to the 2016 policy; it is executing precisely as envisioned in 2016. In both cases, the Commission realized that the current state of technology makes it impractical to provide 50 Mbps service to some parts of the country at anything close to a reasonable subsidy per household.<\/p>\n

The reality is that funds are limited. As the CRTC found in 2016, \u201cClosing the gap in broadband Internet access service availability in Canada is an enormous financial challenge, requiring billions of dollars in funding and investments that can only be overcome through shared responsibility.\u201d Various government programs are helping bring affordable broadband access to Canadians in rural and remote regions.<\/p>\n

If those subsidies were only applied where speeds of 50Mbps are possible, then some Canadians will continue to have no access at all. While we would all like to have faster internet at a lower price, I think most people will agree that access to some level of broadband is better than no broadband. And let\u2019s not forget that that the speeds being required by the CRTC are the kinds of broadband that nearly half of all Canadians chose for our own homes.<\/p>\n

When some Canadians are wanting for any kind of affordable broadband, it takes a certain kind of arrogance to proclaim that 25Mbps just isn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

There are lots of reasons Canadians like to gripe about the CRTC \u2013 it is part of our national birthright. The Commission\u2019s Broadband Plan isn\u2019t one of them. It\u2019s time to stop complaining and get on with building more broadband networks. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a piece I wrote for the National Newswatch Opinion page: Isn\u2019t some kind of broadband better than nothing? The CRTC thinks so. And I agree. When the Commission released its plans for its $750M Broadband Development Fund earlier this fall, it decided that it would accept applications to provide broadband service at …<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t some broadband better than nothing?<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIsn\u2019t some broadband better than nothing? • Telecom Trends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The following is a piece I wrote for the National Newswatch Opinion page: Isn\u2019t some kind of broadband better than nothing? The CRTC thinks so. 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