ISED confirms work on releasing more specific broadband mapping data

There is “general interest” at Innovation Canada in releasing more detailed mapping for broadband coverage than the current 25-square kilometre zones, including the possibility of using smaller hexagons, The Wire Report has learned. The hexagon model is a mapping method used by ISED and the CRTC to determine where facilities-based internet service providers (ISPs) are located to identify internet availability in the country. If one household inside a 25-km area has access to certain download speeds, then the entire area is ineligible for certain subsidies. It’s currently the method the CRTC is looking to use to evaluate what areas to focus on when it starts handing out money from its $750-million broadband fund, which is accepting applications for infrastructure builds and upgrades this year. It’s also what’s bothering some internet advocates and community broadband parties, including the SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology Inc. (SWIFT), which filed an application asking the CRTC not to use the method for fear it will exclude areas that need money most. If the CRTC finds one household inside the hexagon has access to the basic service download speed of 50 Mbps and upload of 10 Mbps, the whole area becomes ineligible for funding. ISED, which uses the model for publicly-available maps used as part of its Connect to Innovate fund, confirmed in an email on Thursday that it wants to publicly “share the coverage information at a resolution that is more refined than the current 25 km square hexagon model, while continuing to protect commercially confidential Internet Service Providers (ISPs)’s coverage information.” The statement added the department wants to present the same information but at a more granular level including, for example, using “smaller hexagons or greater precisions of information related to communities within a hexagon” and that it is working with the CRTC and ISPs to “evaluate data sources and options. “We will be updating some of the community-level information in the coming weeks, and expect to continue to refine these data sets in the coming months.” In June of last year, ISED said that while it publicly visualizes the data through the hexagon system, it uses much more accurate datasets internally to determine where broadband infrastructure is needed. Currently, when a user inputs their address in the government’s national broadband internet service availability map, they will be presented with the 25-km2 area their address is contained in and list the services available in that hexagon, including coaxial cable, fibre-to-the-home, mobile wireless, fixed wireless, DSL and transport services. The CRTC’s reasons to keep using the model include industry players being used to it, thus reducing administrative burden, and an expectation that market forces will bring improved levels to the rest of an area with at least one served household. SWIFT, which wants to build fibre in the Southwestern Ontario, Caledon and Niagara region, is currently working with service providers, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), and the Rural and Regional Broadband (R2B2) initiative at the University of Guelph to provide a more detailed broadband connectivity map in the region in which it looks to build its fibre project. “The use of ISED’s mapping and data as the basis for eligibility for the CRTC Broadband Fund has led to a significant underestimation of the magnitude of the problem and will restrict the ability of underserved communities to access much-needed funds,” SWIFT’s CEO Geoff Hogan said in a press release, announcing its recent CRTC application. Thursday’s statement was the result of an inquiry from The Wire Report after this publication unearthed, through access to information legislation, a conversation on the matter between the department and BCE Inc., which similarly expressed interest in more granular data. Bell declined to comment further on the issue. “There is an interest to release coverage information which is more precise than the current hexagons,” Daniel Winters, director of broadband engineering at ISED, said in an email late last year to a Bell regulatory employee, whose name is redacted from the document. Winters was responding to the Bell employee’s inquiry about a conversation the company had months prior with Luc Delorme, who was succeeded by Winters in his role, about details of mapping information. “Bell was asking if we could get something more granular than 25 square KM that ISED presently releases,” the telecom employee said, adding Delorme mentioned that ISED was “working on a tool for individual customers to look up their own address and see whether broadband was available at their house. “I think he said that it would be released soon.” Despite the department’s interest in more specific data, Winters said at the time that “there are no immediate plans to change the current online map to show this level of precision.” The month following the email conversation between ISED and Bell, the country’s auditor general released a report criticizing the use of the hexagon model, saying the lack of detailed data may have made it harder for applicants to apply, and that a more detailed map in rural and remote areas “would have been more useful.” Before that, the House of Commons industry committee released a report criticizing the use of the model. ISED noted the problem in the government’s response to that report, saying despite the “outward appearances,” the model isn’t used for “detailed analysis, program administration, or project selection.” The hexagon model, which is used around the world for data mapping, was a used in the application processes of 2014’s $305-million Connecting Canadians and 2016’s $500-million Connect to Innovate funding programs, government websites show. Following the AG’s report, the CRTC put out a call for feedback on broadband maps and data sets it compiled from information telecoms and satellite broadband providers gave the commission, dating back to the end of December 2017. But while the model has drawn criticism -- including from internet advocates like Cybera, which warned about “overrepresentation” -- and rural municipalities who support SWIFT’s application, it has also received support. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), for example, responded to SWIFT’s application in support of the hexagon model, suggesting that the regulator should focus its finite resources on areas that have no internet service at all. Meanwhile, Xplornet Communications Inc. said not funding broadband service expansion in partially-served hexagons will ensure private investment isn’t displaced by public dollars, and Telus Corp. said there isn’t anything better than the current model. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

ISED confirms work on releasing more specific broadband mapping data

News | February 28, 2019

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ISED confirms work on releasing more specific broadband mapping data

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