Make broadband a basic service, PIAC says

In advance of a far-reaching CRTC hearing on access to basic telecom services, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) released a 50-page report Wednesday recommending that broadband Internet access should be treated as a basic service in the same way as telephony. “It’s a matter of strategic policy importance for the regulator and the government to ensure that everybody is on the network and everybody has access to those services,” Michael Janigan, PIAC’s executive director, told The Wire Report in an interview. The report concluded that broadband Internet service has become a vital component of modern society and that all Canadians should have access to it. PIAC notes that, in 1999, the CRTC established a basic service objective for telephone service in telecom decision 99-16, adding that it would like to see similar action taken on broadband Internet. “This created a minimum level of service that must be made available to consumers, regardless of their place of residence. Services such as touchtone dialing, access to emergency service and long distance, directory assistance and a copy of the telephone directory,” the report said. But some telecom industry insiders say that market forces are sufficient to ensure universal access to broadband Internet. Michael Hennessy, Telus Corp.’s senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, in an interview pointed to new satellite capacity that Barrett Xplore Inc. plans to deploy in 2011, allowing for Internet download speeds of up to 25 Mbps in rural areas. The expansion of faster wireless networks is also providing broadband access through handheld devices and USB Internet sticks. “There is the potential, by the time the new satellites roll out and with the new generations of wireless rolling out, that Canadians will have access to broadband no matter where they live,” Hennessy said. Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications consultant at Mark H. Goldberg & Associates, said in an interview that most Canadians who want access to broadband can get it if they are willing to pay for the service. The real challenge, he said, is addressing the affordability of broadband service, not simply whether it is commercially available. Hennessy said that even if Canada achieved broadband penetration rates of 100 per cent, about 20 to 30 per cent of people would still not use the service. He said income barriers and a digital literacy gap means that not all of the population can take advantage of a universally available service. Others, he added, would simply not be interested in using broadband Internet. Hennessy said he agrees with the principle that Canada should strive for 100 per cent access to broadband, but cautioned that it does not need to be regulated as a basic service. Universal access to broadband Internet—and the question of mandating Internet access as a basic service—will be one of the topics under discussion at the CRTC’s upcoming hearings to review basic telecommunications services. The hearing will also look into whether wireless Internet services can be a legitimate substitute for traditional landline service and if cellphones can substitute landlines for voice services. But Janigan said market forces are only one tool to ensure access and that other countries have put regulations in place to guarantee access. “By all means, market forces are one of the tools to be applied but they are not the only tools,” he said. “We have to look to whether or not our population is in a better situation than other countries in the world in relation to access to broadband.” The report pointed out that universal broadband access was first recommended to the government almost 10 years ago. “The Broadband Task Force has recommended as early as 2001 that Canada make broadband services available to all Canadian communities. The Telecommunications Review Panel Report came to a similar conclusion and recommended that broadband services be made available to all communities in Canada,” the PIAC report said. PIAC also outlined the steps several other countries have taken to ensure their citizens can access broadband Internet. Finland and Spain, for example, recently established broadband Internet access as a basic legal right. Finland has a requirement that every business and consumer should have access to Internet download speeds of at least 1 Mbps. The country is expected to increase that standard to 100 Mbps by 2015. PIAC did not go so far as to call for declaring broadband access a legal right in Canada, but Janigan said the fundamental idea is a good one, even if Canadians use different terminology. “I think the experiences in other countries are useful, but I don’t think necessarily that they can be applied in a lock-step matter,” Janigan said, pointing to geographical and demographic differences between Canada and other countries. “I don’t think you can simply transpose something from Spain or Finland in the current circumstances.” The CRTC said in a recent statistical report that Canadian broadband penetration rates, at speeds of at least 1.5 Mbps, reached 72 per cent in 2009, up from 69 per cent in 2008. Goldberg said that universal broadband access is just one piece of the puzzle to connect Canadians. “What about the computers to attach to , the devices? It’s not just broadband that is needed,” Goldberg said. “Let’s take a more holistic view and within the context of a national digital strategy and our national social safety net, to enable economically disadvantaged Canadians to have access to all of the appropriate tools.” Hennessy said mandating broadband Internet access could be difficult because it is the cable companies, such as Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., that currently have the largest share of the residential Internet market. But cable infrastructure does not currently reach every household in Canada. “It would be a very odd proposition to require the competitor that is in second place in the market to provide that ,” Hennessy said. Goldberg said government-imposed funding mechanisms could distort market forces by giving some companies--those that receive funding--a competitive advantage over others. The commission has launched a consultation website for its proceeding on basic telecom services, seeking comments from the public. Comments close Aug. 20, and public hearings are scheduled to begin in Timmins, Ont., on Oct. 26. Janigan said the PIAC report was commissioned in 2008, before the CRTC launched its proceeding on basic telecom services. But he added that the organization's research for the report will inform PIAC’s comments for the proceeding. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Make broadband a basic service, PIAC says

News | August 19, 2010

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