CNOC’s Stein pitches municipal-ISP cooperation to roll out rural broadband

NORTH BAY, Ont. — President of the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) Matt Stein proposed Thursday that small towns and municipalities looking to build their own broadband infrastructure should partner with wholesale-based ISPs. In a speech at the Bridging the Digital Divide conference in North Bay, Ont., he said that municipalities shouldn’t wait for others, like the large incumbents, to build the necessary networks. “I’m encouraging you to do it yourself. Find a partner. Don’t wait for the incumbents to come in and bless you with their network. Take over, run the show, and reap the profits,” he said. “Build it yourself. There are different funding models from different levels of government and willing partners from coast to coast.” Once that infrastructure is built, the municipalities should consider partnering with wholesale-based ISPs like the ones CNOC represents to run the telecom services offerings, he suggested. “Wholesale ISPs across the country, and there are plenty, already know how to take care of services being layered on top of physical infrastructure. They do it every day,” he said. Stein, who is also the CEO of Distributel Communications Ltd., outlined his company’s partnership with Eeyou Communications Network -- which resulted in high-speed internet, television and home phone bundle becoming available to 4,000 homes in northern Quebec -- as an example of such cooperation. Eeyou built its own physical infrastructure in the James Bay region and employed people in each community to install service and do local maintenance, Stein said, but didn’t have aspects like customer support call centres set up, or experience with products like home phone, which comes with regulatory obligations, or putting together a TV service with hundreds of channels. “We already knew how to do the parts that Eeyou didn’t, and vice versa,” he explained. “We were already used to offering services with a partner, delivering the last mile. As a builder and operator, Eeyou needed someone to take care of, not of the physical plant, not of actually laying the fibre, but of selling it, of providing the customer experience, the services that lay on top.” Earlier in the day, the conference heard from the mayor of Olds, Alta., which began offering gigabit service in August 2013 on fibre lines built by the town’s non-profit economic development corporation. He said the town, which acts as its own telecom service provider, has seen a higher population growth rate than other similar municipalities since then as a result of its connectivity, in addition to other benefits.

CNOC’s Stein pitches municipal-ISP cooperation to roll out rural broadband

Brief | November 15, 2019

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CNOC’s Stein pitches municipal-ISP cooperation to roll out rural broadband

Brief | November 15, 2019

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