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Canada's telecom regulator yesterday declared that broadband Internet must be considered "a basic telecommunications service for all Canadians" and created a fund to connect rural and remote communities. With this decision, high-speed broadband is now treated as an essential technology similar to voice service.
All Canadians should be able to purchase home Internet with 50Mbps download speeds and 10Mbps uploads, and they should have the option of purchasing unlimited data, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announcement said. A new fund will make $750 million available over the next five years to support projects in areas where that level of broadband isn't available.
Money will be distributed to applicants based upon a competitive process. Funding can be used either for fixed broadband service or to upgrade mobile networks, but the goals of 50Mbps/10Mbps and unlimited data for all is specifically for home Internet service. About 10 percent will be allocated to communities that are dependent on satellite access.
Currently, about 18 percent of Canadians, representing 2 million households, don't have access to 50Mbps/10Mbps service. "The CRTC's goal is to reduce that to 10 per cent by 2021 and down to zero in the next 10 to 15 years," a CBC article said.
This sort of thing is why I have so much affection for Canada.
(Score: 1) by marknmel on Saturday December 24 2016, @02:48PM
I'm a Canadian. Sorry eh.
I live in a medium sized city, fairly close to Trumpland.
The problem that's I think this legislation is trying to solve is fair access for all. It doesn't matter if you are in the far north, or even the populated south, it's the incumbents that have been screwing the country for years, and doing so with one hand in the pocket of the taxpayers and with one hand in the pocket of the consumer. (I have two pockets...)
The incumbents have egregious pricing (dsl), or lack features like staticc ip addresses (cable). Both incumbents offer reasonable network access speeds. I'm more aware of the DSL side as that's my preference, but speeds from 5/1, 8/1 , 15/1, 25/10, 50/10 are common. The data caps and overage charges were ridiculous.
It's always been my preference to use an industry isp. They buy access to the incumbent system at a wholesale rate, offer you a bit of a break on pricing and overage charges, are very reliable technically, employ Canadians, and are generally nice and helpful if you need them.
At the end of my street (about 15 houses away) there is a fiber node. The incumbents (until semi-recently) have access to 5/1 infrastructure, despite (at the time) paying for 8/1, and originally having 8/1 - the incumbent is also using dsl to offer their own television service. The incumbent without warning would downgrade my circuit.
Recently the CRTC has allowed Indy ISPs to fully access fiber to the node infrastructure. Currently on 25/10 with a 400GB cap.
So I'm a bit weary of the pricing models and offerings to say the least.
There is nothing that can't be solved with one more layer of indirection.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday December 24 2016, @07:04PM
There's a few Canucks here, me also.
I was always going over my cap and paying extra for it (made my wife mad, lol). Then Bell made an offer of "for $5.00 more per month, I could get unlimited!"
So I went for it and haven't looked back at the money I'm 'saving', lol.
Yes, they throttle me, but overnight, I can get good torrent speeds.... for my Linux distribution downloads of course :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday December 25 2016, @04:04AM
I'm also not far from Trumpland, perhaps 40 miles east of Vancouver and all I can do is dream of even 5/1 as I post on my $38 (I see it's gone up again as well as call display is now $9 a month, bastards) 26.4 kb/s dial up connection. Be nice to be able to get Satellite (hiding behind a hill) and I dream of having working cell service. Worst is that Telus announced they're dropping dial-up on Nov 16th due to not being able to get equipment (it's still working for now), so soon I'll be in a worst position (at home) then the average person in Nunavut while be easily able to commute to Vancouver.