Regions call for overhaul of broadband funding criteria

Investment in rural broadband infrastructure should be focused on improving areas with Canada’s slowest internet speeds, despite new minimum internet service speeds vastly increasing the amount of Canadian regions considered “underserved”, according to a CRTC submission by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta. The independent association representing Alberta’s 69 counties and municipalities intervened in the CRTC’s consultation on barriers to internet access in remote areas, which is open until April 23. The CRTC asked telecom providers what barriers were hindering their ability to deliver the basic service objective for internet access established three years ago, of 50 Mbps download, 10 Mbps upload and the option of unlimited data. The CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report shows just 40.8 per cent of rural households received service speeds at the universal standard in 2018, dropping to only 31.3 per cent of households on Indigenous reserves. In its submission, the RMA said it was “foreseeable” that internet providers would try to prioritise funding for “marginally underserved areas” receiving download speeds just shy of the 50 Mbps benchmark because it would be “much more easily accomplished” rather than focusing on areas lagging well behind it. “Funding programs for underserved areas should explicitly focus on funding projects that will increase internet speeds in areas that currently receive the slowest internet speeds,” the association said. Broadband development policies and programs should have criteria weighing the geographic area covered, an area’s existing speeds and the cost association with servicing remote areas to ensure the most underserved areas are prioritized, the association argues. Their call for funding models to be reconsidered was echoed by the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, which in its own intervention also criticised the CRTC’s $750 million Broadband Fund. That included concerns about “limiting” requirements where municipalities can only receive direct funding if they partnered with an ISP or have three years or more experience operating a broadband network. The association also criticised the use of the hexagon model to determine underserved areas, saying it “overstates” the area served by an internet service provider. This issue is particularly present in rural areas bordering an urban area, where a rural property on the edge of the urban area may receive high speed internet, but the remaining dwellings in the rural area do not. The CRTC’s use of the hexagon model for its Broadband Fund survived a challenge by SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology Inc. (SWIFT), who voiced similar concerns about it excluding too many poorly serviced communities from applying. — With reporting by Adam Langenberg at alangenberg@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Regions call for overhaul of broadband funding criteria

News | January 27, 2020

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Regions call for overhaul of broadband funding criteria

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