Canada should consider Alberta’s SuperNet as model for national broadband program: Maduri

Barrett Xplore Inc. president John Maduri has warned a Senate committee that the federal government’s new $225-million broadband fund could harm small ISPs if it’s not set up properly. Alberta’s SuperNet model could provide a solution, he suggested. Appearing before the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications last week, Maduri said the broadband program – announced in the government’s February budget – has to take into account what the private sector has already invested and that allowing networks to be built in areas where facilities already exist would harm existing providers. “We have been clear, as have other providers, that the process needs to be thoughtful to ensure there is not overbuilding and so the public monies do not overbuild existing footprint, because there are a large number of rural broadband service providers who have invested private capital. That is a critical factor,” Maduri said. Maduri urged committee members to look to Alberta for advice on how to encourage more broadband network deployment. The Alberta SuperNet gives service providers in more than 400 comminutes across the province access to a fibre backbone, an element of the network he described as “essential and critical” to rural broadband providers. “In our view, it is a very interesting way for government to engage, to encourage private investment and to encourage competition, because once the backbone is there, others can invest in the last mile solution and deliver services at the retail level to end customers,” he explained. The SuperNet model, built by Axia NetMedia and Bell Canada, has been transplanted in a few other places around the world. Most recently, Axia and its joint venture VINCI Networks inked another network build agreement in France where it launched its first international venture in 2006. Be aware of “unintended consequences” Maduri also warned the committee of the “unintended consequences” of any government broadband program, pointing to the ongoing deferral account issue, which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court of Canada. That plan was supposed to expand the reach of broadband into unserved rural and remote communities, but has been marred in legal wrangling since it was released three years ago. After the CRTC decision was released, Maduri said it was impossible to get additional financing to continue rolling out the company’s fixed wireless broadband and satellite facilities. “Without a word of exaggeration, from February 2006 until March 2007, we could not raise a nickel of capital as investors tried to understand and make sense of what the intent of that program was and what impact it would have on private operators like ourselves,” he told Senators. Industry Canada was asked about the program when senior bureaucrats appeared before the committee in April. “It would be premature at this point (to release details) because the department is still working on the matter and we do not have a final product to show you,” Len St-Aubin, director general of Industry Canada’s telecommunications policy branch, said at the time. Satellite to soon rival cable and DSL While Maduri highlighted some problems regarding government involvement in spurring broadband deployment, the Barrett Xplore chief spent the majority of his time, talking up the merits that satellite technologies will bring to rural and remote Canadians. He acknowledged that satellite broadband isn’t comparable to urban DSL or cable broadband services in both speed and price, but noted that is about to change. Maduri said that within the next two to three years a “quantum increase” amount of new capacity will come online and that new technologies will bring the cost of satellite broadband down to rates comparable to high-speed cable and DSL and increase download speeds. “The big news in 2011 is that we will have about 10 times the amount of capacity available to the Canadian market, which will allow us to price more effectively,” he explained. “We anticipate pricing somewhere in the $50 a month range, $100…start up, and the ability to deliver packages starting at three megabits down, completely bidirectional, and the capacity to serve around 500,000 customers.” New technological advancements combined with increased satellite capacity will mean the goal of enabling 100% broadband availability is within reach, according to Maduri, “at a cost to the consumer – a retail point – that is comparable with the balance of urban Canada.”

Canada should consider Alberta’s SuperNet as model for national broadband program: Maduri

News | 06/10/2009 5:13 pm EDT

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