Government promises faster action, 250,000 new connections by the end of 2021
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The federal government announced Monday that it will begin accepting applications for its Universal Broadband Fund, which will now include an additional $750 million of new money and a fast-track application stream.
The $1.75-billion program, announced in the federal budget back in March 2019, will carve out $150 million to provide rapid project completion by November 15, 2021 for “shovel-ready” projects. The government anticipates spending up to $5 million on the speedier projects – applications of which are due by January 2021 – which are all expected to deliver access to 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload to unserved or underserved Canadians.
The news comes after the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which will also work with the UBF to launch projects, was infused last month with $2 billion to tackle the rural broadband connectivity gap. The program will seek to leverage those other sources of funding to “maximize value.”
The deadline for new (non-fast-track) applications is February 15, 2021. Successful projects are expected to be announced early next year, the government said. Funding will flow until March 2027.
The program will have some project preferences. The government’s online guide says applications will be looked at favourably if the price for end services are low; if the project includes open access to points of presence or the last mile so others can ride on the networks; and if it can show that it can get speedy collaborative access to third-party passive infrastructure if needed.
On the flip side, applicants “owning passive infrastructure that do not undertake any action to make it more promptly accessible to third parties will be assessed less positively than others,” the government guidelines say.
The government will also make up to $50 million available to support mobile projects that primarily benefit Indigenous peoples. It has also pushed up the projected timeline on high-speed broadband coverage with those speeds to 98% of the country by 2026, from 95%.
Part of the UBF connectivity strategy includes the use of low-earth orbit satellites. On Monday, the government resurrected a July 2019 memorandum of understanding that featured a government pledge to invest $600 million in Telesat. The now-finalized agreement secures government capacity from the company, which currently has only one prototype satellite of this kind as it stalled on a vendor to build the rest of its fleet.
Telesat will not directly offer internet services to Canadians. Instead, the capacity will be sold at a discount to internet service providers, who will run their own lines to customers. Coverage areas will largely focus on satellite-dependent and fibre-less communities.
The government said it expects the Telesat project to cover Canada’s north in 2022 and the rest of Canada by 2023. ISED Minister Bains actually said during the press conference Monday that “these satellites will be deployed late next year,” meaning 2021.
When asked why the government thinks it can push its timeline projections up when its 2016 Connect to Innovate (CTI) program has so far only connected 28,000 households, a senior government official said in a technical briefing the government has learned some lessons. “Some of the processes at the front end could be a bit challenging for applicants to develop the applications and to understand how to negotiate the contribution agreements…we took that to heart,” the official said.
“These are large broadband infrastructure projects, so it is still complex to apply but we developed a pathfinder service to help applicants,” especially smaller municipal and indigenous applicants, the official said, pointing to the service which helps guide the applicant through various avenues.
The official also pointed to a new mapping tool, which abolishes the less-precise hexagon model the CTI program used, which the government said will help them evaluate projects and approve them more quickly.
According to Innovation Canada’s CTI website, 29 applicants are still negotiating contribution agreements under that program, 69 are still in the planning, design and construction stage, and seven are now operational. It anticipates 35,000 homes will have access to the 50/10 speeds under the program by the end of this year, with nearly 400,000 projected to have access by the end of 2023.
In fact, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development Maryam Monsef (pictured above in a CPAC.ca screen capture) promised during the federal government’s press conference on Monday that by the end of 2021, “a quarter million plus” rural Canadians will be connected to broadband thanks to the federal government’s programs.
The senior official said the vast majority of applicants under the CTI program have been notified that they would not be selected, still leaving applicants in Manitoba in particular without a status update.
ISED also said it is launching on Monday an online tracker for CTI projects, with the goal of making a similar tool available for all the other broadband projects.
Cartt.ca will chase down comments from Canadian operators as they have a chance to digest the new fund, however, the Canadian Communications Systems Alliance had this to say: “We would like to thank the government for its continued focus on rural broadband expansion to connect every Canadian to high-speed internet,” said Jay Thomson, CEO of the CCSA. “While we will need to review the details of the UBF, including the process for accessing the new Rapid Response Stream, we are hopeful the new fund will make a big difference in ensuring that more Canadians get connected and can participate in the digital economy.”
