50/10 Mbps standard just fine, CanWISP members say

GATINEAU, Que. – The federal government's stated objective to reach connectivity speeds of 50 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads is good enough and does need to be increased by much, according to members of the Canadian Association of Wireless Internet Service Providers (CanWISP). Monday, CanWISP held its 2022 annual conference opening with a panel discussion on 50/10 Mbps wireless experiences which faid that the average Canadians have been using 20 Mbps for their upload speeds. According to interviews with CanWISP members, the universal standard for 50/10 speeds is an ambitious goal, despite industry stakeholder reports arguing that reaching 50/10 Mbps connectivity speeds – with unlimited monthly data transfer – are insufficient and will not meet the needs of rural, remote and Indigenous communities in the future. Scott Holmes, CEO of Niagara Wireless Internet Corp. said the 10 Mbps upload speed could be increased up to 15 Mbps calling it “super necessary” in a post-COVID era with more online meetings. He said that the 50 Mbps download standard doesn't need to be increased, and is “a future-proofing type of idea without the realization that data can get more efficient.” Holmes said popular streaming applications such as Netflix Inc. are starting to use codec, a process which allows for more compression of data with less transit. “So how much reserves do you really need?” he asked. The 50/10 benchmark "is probably an ambitious goal, it's certainly achievable but the bar was set higher than it needed to be. Thirty would have been a good number.” Adnan Ahmed, chief technology officer at Sichuun – a telecommunications service provider in Schefferville, Que. – said that before the government came out with the 50/10 Mbps benchmark, speeds across the country were quite low. “So now we are getting pushed to deliver more and more,” he said. “We need one to achieve as an industry and I think is a good one even though people won’t be using it all the time.” Holmes argued that upping the universal standard could cause issues for small WISPs, unless there is more spectrum available in 6 GHz. Small businesses “only have so much to work with,” he said. “It’s just a physics question. You can always solve the problem by getting into smaller sector sizes, which is more radios on towers, which requires bigger towers and more attachments. So eventually you do run into engineering issues… and could require redoing an entire network to support that,” he said. Ahmed added that increasing the benchmark would pose backhaul issues for small WISPs who would have to rely on the big three incumbents for backhaul access at an affordable price, which would then create more reliance on government funding. Holmes said that a lot of the government’s funding applications are not “technology-agnostic” because they benefit fibre first over wireless. “So I wish they would reevaluate some of the up-and-coming wireless technologies and also realize there’s other clubs with a golf ball on the green,” Holmes said, noting his company has received no government funding to date. Holmes said WISPs can connect homes faster than through fibre, and said the government should develop a funding model similar to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program, where businesses get paid once they get connected as opposed to waiting on “excruciatingly” long applications, consultants, and funding announcements. Ahmed added that the current funding process is “slow to happen” especially with current supply chain issues. “You’re ready to go but the stuff is not going to be available for six months and the construction windows in are only for a few months a year,” he said, noting that it took Sichuun 10 years to transition from satellite to fibre through government funding. Pino Demiglio, vice-president of sales at KPG Co. said meeting the government's mandated timeframe – usually around a year to launch – is not feasible given the current economic situation, and supply chain delays. He said that supply chain issues from raw materials to finding containers has been a problem for the industry and the government needs to extend its time allocation for funding. “To me it strikes me just as an election campaign promise,” Demiglio said, adding that the industry and government should focus less on connectivity speed standards and more on Canadians’ experiences connecting online. “Is 50/10 just about hitting a number or about individual experience? If I can stream two videos at a time, surf the web and get my email, what else do I really need it for? Did 4G to 5G really change our lives?,” he said. “I’d rather have lower speeds with no jitter and better latency and you can do that under 50 while focusing on good services.” Holmes added that access to the 6 GHz spectrum is needed “immediately” if the government ever wants to reach its 50/10 Mbps goal with defined rules, because equipment manufacturers are waiting on the government to finalize the rules and regulations for the 6 GHz auction. “We have been really unsuccessful in auctions, they made it really difficult to make it meaningful – unless you're a $25 million per year company. It cost me a minimum of $2 million in aggregates just to start so that is a big ask just for spectrum and get in the way" of reaching 50/10 Mbps speeds. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca .

50/10 Mbps standard just fine, CanWISP members say

News | March 28, 2022

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