Canada seeks equilibrium in broadband rollouts

The telecom industry continues to struggle to find the right balance between private and public interests to bring broadband to remote communities, according to a panel session at the 2006 Canadian Telecom Summit held June 12 to 14 in Toronto. But this isn’t news as a variety of approaches to making broadband available on a national basis have been bandied about over the years. The theme has surfaced repeatedly over the years with no apparent consensus on how this important social and economic objective should be met. Bill St. Arnaud, senior director, advanced networks at CANARIE Inc. urged the adoption of a "community-owned network", whereby citizens own the network’s underpinning infrastructure and carriers provide services. He pointed to Vasteras, Sweden as a prime example, where residents have upwards of 25 different access providers from which to choose. In Vasteras, a local utility provider built the network out to central offices, but individual residents own the wires connecting their homes to the network nodes. "We think it’s a model rapid development of true broadband to the home," St. Arnaud said, noting that telecom companies have to be involved. "You can’t disenfranchise the incumbents." He argued that municipalities should not try to be service providers themselves. "It gets cities into a lot of trouble," he said, adding cities and towns generally lack the expertise and economies of scale. According to St. Arnaud, the worst situation may have to do with municipal Wi-Fi. It’s a wonky business case, and "you’re running into some very basic physics problems," he said, explaining that it’s no mean feat to provide connectivity both outside and inside via wireless networks. Another solution involves government funding. Industry Canada’s Broadband for Rural and Northern Development program (BRAND) is an example. But these initiatives often operate by competition and result in some communities winning funding while others go without. "You get these little islands that aren’t really connected," said Ed Antecol, a lawyer at Papazian, Heisey, Myers. According to Diana Milenkovic, senior VP, marketing and mobility at SaskTel, one way to avoid such silos is to rely on carriers as "aggregators" that bring together disparate communities, network elements and funding from initiatives like BRAND. SaskTel’s CommunityNet program operates this way. This Saskatchewan-wide network reaches 366 communities that might otherwise not have broadband. The alternatives to this aggregation approach can be messy. Milenkovic told the story of one small community that won BRAND funding, but is now in a jam because the broadband "champion" is planning to leave. A system including other communities with the carrier as the system’s lynchpin would result in no such broadband abandonment, she said. Aliant Inc. also relied on BRAND funding to bring broadband to outlying towns and villages in eastern Canada. "These communities…would still be waiting" for high-speed Internet service if not for the combined private-public partnership, said Joe Mosher, an Aliant director. He added that broadband connectivity has less to do with data links and more to do with an important, national question: "How do we use innovation in Canada…to bring new, unique utilities?" But there are challenges, according to another network provider. Brian Napier, director, market development at Glentel Inc., a Burnaby BC-based wireless network provider, pointed out that not everyone has the same definitions of "public," or even "community." Is Toronto Hydro Telecom Inc.’s planned Wi-Fi network a public undertaking, or a private concern? Can a community span an entire province, or is it necessarily municipal in size? "We’re all on…a different plane of understanding," he said, explaining that it’s difficult to choose the best route forward if no one agrees on the terms of reference. Milenkovic, meanwhile, mentioned a problem with mobility. Just because CommunityNet works in Saskatchewan doesn’t mean it would succeed everywhere. "One area of Canada may need a different model," she said. Solutions must be local enough to address problems particular to a community, but global enough to ensure the community isn’t stranded on a broadband island.

Canada seeks equilibrium in broadband rollouts

News | June 22, 2006

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