Tory broadband plan falls short of target for 98 per cent of homes, experts say

Industry experts say the Conservative government’s Broadband Canada plan will fall short of its 98 per cent broadband connectivity target—depending on how broadband is defined. “I don’t think we have a plan to get from 95 to 98 per cent,” Catherine Middleton, the Canada research chair in communication technologies in the information society at Ryerson University, said in an interview. “Although there was some funding in 2009, it’s not clear how that funding, which was targeted to specific projects, will get to additional coverage.” As part of its economic action plan, the Conservative government in 2009 allocated $225 million to the establishment of a Broadband Canada plan to help connect people in rural and remote areas. Former industry minister Tony Clement has said the plan aims to connect 98 per cent of homes. Industry Minister Christian Paradis affirmed that point in a statement to the CBC's The Current on June 9, noting that the Conservative government has “set a target of ensuring that 98 percent of Canadian households have access to broadband internet by the end of 2012.” Paradis added: “It is our opinion that rural Canadians are entitled to the exact services as those in urban Canada—without exception. That's why we launched a program in 2009.” By the end of the plan's implementation, it will connect nearly 250,000 Canadian households to broadband, the government says. How the government will connect 98 per cent of homes depends on what types of technologies are used to do it. According to a CRTC report on May 3, 2011, Canada’s Internet coverage is already relatively expansive. The commission said that 95 per cent of Canadian households now have access to Internet download speeds of at least 1.5 Mbps, and more than 80 per cent of residences have download speeds of 5 Mbps or higher. “Satellite pretty much covers the country already, and satellite service has some limitations compared to other types of services,” Middleton said. “But if you look at CRTC reports and other reports, they mention that Canada already has 98 per cent coverage with satellite.” Meeting the government's 98 per cent target depends on how broadband is defined, independent telecom analyst Bill St. Arnaud says. “Its all about how you define broadband. Theoretically we have 100% coverage and we have had it for over a decade—by satellite. Never mind that you would end up in an old folks home waiting for your download—by most definitions used by the CRTC and government it is considered broadband,” St. Arnaud wrote via email. He said that right now, conventional broadband, or at least a 5 Mbps “bidirectional” connection, is available to less than 95 per cent of the population by DSL or cable. “Using the broadband definition common in most other countries, i.e. 20 Mbps, then coverage is only about 10-15%,” he wrote. Based on 2009 data released in the CRTC’s 2010 Communications Monitoring Report, 85 per cent of Canadians have access to DSL, 80 per cent have cable modem access and 83 per cent can operate on fixed-wireless. In May, the CRTC also set a national target for all Canadian households to have access to Internet speeds of 5 Mbps or faster for downloads and 1 Mbps for uploads by 2015. St. Arnaud added in a phone interview that he would expect only about 80 to 95 per cent of Canadians to subscribe to broadband. “The other two per cent are probably in areas that are not covered by satellite, either in the extreme North or in remote locations that makes it impractical.” He said Industry Canada’s $225 million broadband initiative is a “drop in the bucket.” St. Arnaud estimated that the Industry Canada initiative targets 25 rural and remote communities across the country. “The initiative really touched on some very small communities and remote locations,” he said. “That only touches a small percentage of the homes and doesn’t come close to even reaching the majority of homes that still don’t have access to broadband.” In the last urban and rural population census conducted by Statistics Canada in 2006, the nation’s total rural population counted 6,262,154 individuals, amounting to 20 per cent of the population. Experts say that although Canada is close to connecting 98 per cent of homes, it is not capable of offering the same quality of service as countries like Korea and Luxembourg. “If you look at Korea, we’re on another planet,” St. Arnaud said. According to a report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in early June, Korea plans to establish national minimum broadband speeds of 10 Mbps by 2012. The OECD also said Luxembourg plans to bring fibre-to-the-home to every residence by 2015, with 1 Gpbs Internet available nationally by 2020. “I think Canada is already pretty close to its goal, but for low-speed broadband,” St. Arnaud said. Middleton said the country has suffered from inaction on a concrete national digital strategy. “Part of the issue is that we continue to wait for the official strategy that the government has been working on,” Middleton said. St. Arnaud said Industry Canada’s initiative should not be considered a broadband plan. “Canada does not have a broadband plan,” he said. “Unfortunately, both in Canada and the U.S., we’ve assumed that the incumbent telephone and cable companies will implement reasonable and high-speed broadband, which is just not happening.” dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Tory broadband plan falls short of target for 98 per cent of homes, experts say

News | 06/30/2011 9:13 pm EDT

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