OTTAWA – When writing about a discussion between five panellists and a moderator, it can be difficult to report on all of what was said but a Tuesday panel session on internet affordability may have been most notable for what was not said.
The Canadian Chapter of the Internet Society held its second annual Digital Access Day, which brought together a variety of thought leaders from NGOs, the tech sector, government, universities, and those most affected by the digital divide to discuss broadband access issues.
The panel on affordability talked about how they believe the price of communications in Canada is higher than in most other modern economies and that adoption by Canadians of data-intense uses is slowed by high prices. So why is this? What can be done about it?
Moderator and independent lawyer Bram Abramson (who we found out is also a licenced private investigator!) corralled comments from Janet Lo, VP, privacy and consumer legal affairs at TekSavvy, Philip Palmer from Internet Society Canada Chapter, Tamir Israel, staff counsel at CIPPIC, two-term mayor of Iqaluit Madeleine Redfern, and Gisele Bouvier, national board member of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). ACORN was instrumental in the launch of the Connecting Families program.
It was obvious the panel thinks that the rates Canadians pay for communications services are too high and that something needs to be done about it. And if you think you pay too much, Iqaluit is far more expensive! Mayor Redfern outlined the rates herself and the municipality pay for communications services, which are far, far higher than down south.
No offered solution jumped at us, however. Yes, a more meaningful wholesale regime could ensure additional competition but competing with your wholesale providers, like TekSavvy does, is rife with conflict situations. An improved wholesale regime would mean timely final wholesale rates for new products in the market, but this is not the case today as the CRTC has not set final rates. Providing service at interim rates is a serious business risk, said Lo.
Palmer proposed structural separation between the network and the retail service providers, as has been partially done in the UK and Australia, so that many retailers can sell service on a nationalized network. For that to work, however, you need political direction and political will, as well as public money. Australia’s National Broadband Network is not yet finished and the cost has risen to an estimated A$51 billion.
There needs to be government subsidy and the goal should be 1 GB of data per month for every Canadian, agreed the panelists. The Connecting Families program, launched last fall, is providing 100 GB at $10 for 220,000 families but it is only the beginning.
The federal government’s proposed CRTC policy direction could force a shift in the Commission approach away from its facilities-based bedrock, but the old policy direction needs to be rescinded and then the Commission will have to forcefully apply the new one, the panelists noted.
The difficulty with a panel such as Tuesday’s is as soon as you get down in the costing rabbit hole, the Mayor of Iqaluit and the ACORN representative are coming at the problem from far different corners. It is an interesting conundrum because, as was mentioned, we can blame politicians for lack of will or lack of direction but the knowledge required to run a network and serve Canadians favours the incumbents who could be tempted to game the system.
When the moderator proposed a Costing School for everyone, Mr. Israel quipped there might need to be a costing police force, to which only half got the joke.
The political will to ensure better incumbent behaviour, or at least behaviour which lowers retail pricing of broadband, is difficult to impose. There is no magic formula.
However, during question period we dared asking a scary question: Instead of trying to engineer the competition, to paraphrase the moderator, is it time then to look at regulating the actual retail rates? Too complicated, said Palmer.
However, regulating Boeing or Facebook is also rather complicated, so rate regulation could ultimately be the solution the federal government turns towards… if it’s agreed rates are in fact too high and whatever the industry and its minders are doing is not working.
