OTTAWA – Should broadband be deemed an essential service for all Canadians in the same way as basic telephone service?
Count the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) firmly on the ‘yes’ side of that question. In a new report called Is Broadband Basic Service, the Ottawa-based consumer organization details how Canada could benefit from such a plan, and how countries like Japan and the European Union have been successful thanks to policy and infrastructure investments that make broadband service a basic right for their citizens. All of which stands in contrast to Canada where no such regime exists – at least not yet.
“Many consumers, particularly those in rural or remote areas, are not able to harness the full potential of the Internet”, said PIAC’s exective director, Michael Janigan, in a statement. “Others may live in areas served by broadband providers, but lack the financial resources to obtain service.”
The CRTC also supports the idea, and has proposed during its recent ‘Obligation to Serve’ proceeding that broadband be included as part of the basic service objective for telcos, as Cartt.ca reported.
But the key question remains unanswered – who will pay for such a venture?
PIAC has floated the idea of a subsidy paid to telecom service providers who offer high speed Internet in high-cost, high-speed Internet serving areas, but that got a lukewarm response at best from the likes of Cogeco Cable, Quebecor Media, Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications. And Bell Canada proposed that the government use tax revenues to fund targeted subsidy programs.
Somewhat surprisingly, PIAC’s lengthy report only briefly references costs:
“It is also clear that the traditional mechanisms for maintaining and financing the basic service obligation, primarily through an obligation to provide basic service in the form of single land-line telephony, cannot be the principal means of maintaining and financing basic service in the future”, it reads. “The same regulatory bargain that drove the establishment of basic service provided by the incumbent monopoly provider is no longer in place.”
Few Canadians would dispute the importance of broadband in improving our economic, social and cultural opportunities. But should it be declared a legal right in Canada as it is in countries like Finland and Spain? And if so, at what cost?
