Slashdot Mirror

Seriously, one of the towns/villages along my normal work route - population under 1500 - is halfway up a mountain, far enough from the city to be pain to install high-speed, and yet still has internet.

See here for more info. Commercial broadband internet has been available for years, and residential popped in more recently. Here's another town with a population of a little under 3000. We've got areas that are little more than a smudge on the map that have decent broadband, since both Telus and Shaw cable have a good trunk. On top of that, smaller or more-local providers such as OCIS provide internet via shared/leased connections (with their own infrastructure added to make the last mile) and other technologies such as wireless etc... without being strangled off by the big guys

Sorry, but if we Canucks can manage it, the US can too. I'm fairly sure it's a case of piss-poor implementation, support, and just basic greed that keeps it from happening.

And before people start pointing out that the US has more population to reach, I'd like to point out that Canada has plenty of area, and plenty of open space between locations but still manages to for the most-part get internet out to nowheresville across plenty of long-empty distance and nasty unpleasant environmental conditions (no, we don't have 365 snow here, we go range from as much as +40c/104F in summer to -40C/-40F in winter, so we get it *all*)

Tell me, How's broadband in northen Canada? Northwest terroritories have the same high quality service don't they?

This ought to answer your questions about broad band access in Canada. Here's the coverage map for the North West Territories. Notice that Inuvik's 2894 people can chose between cable and DSL access. Also take a look at the National Satellite Initiative which literally covers the entire country, though admittedly the latency is an issue for things like VOIP.

Tell me, How's broadband in northen Canada? Northwest terroritories have the same high quality service don't they?

This ought to answer your questions about broad band access in Canada. Here's the coverage map for the North West Territories. Notice that Inuvik's 2894 people can chose between cable and DSL access. Also take a look at the National Satellite Initiative which literally covers the entire country, though admittedly the latency is an issue for things like VOIP.

Tell me, How's broadband in northen Canada? Northwest terroritories have the same high quality service don't they?

This ought to answer your questions about broad band access in Canada. Here's the coverage map for the North West Territories. Notice that Inuvik's 2894 people can chose between cable and DSL access. Also take a look at the National Satellite Initiative which literally covers the entire country, though admittedly the latency is an issue for things like VOIP.

Tell me, How's broadband in northen Canada? Northwest terroritories have the same high quality service don't they?

This ought to answer your questions about broad band access in Canada. Here's the coverage map for the North West Territories. Notice that Inuvik's 2894 people can chose between cable and DSL access. Also take a look at the National Satellite Initiative which literally covers the entire country, though admittedly the latency is an issue for things like VOIP.

For some more info look atthe broadband map of Canada It's a little out of date (2001 census) but it should give you an idea of the penetration in Canada.

well, canada is significantly ahead of the states in broadband penetration in general. source for that statement is here. other source here. there are two reasons for this:

1. there's government programs. look at the canadian gov'ts "broadband for rural and northern areas" program: it's here. even saskatchewan, which has a reputation for being behind the curve has a program to get broadband across the province in three years. it's here. so, reason one: government money.
2. there's competition! in canada if you can get cable tv and phone service you probably have two choices for broadband. the tv and phone companies want to expand into rural areas to get the first-to-market jump on the other guy. so, reason two: competition.

Don't be so quick to discredit our excellent access to broadband to the fact that Canadian cities are centered in certain areas. I live in asscrack, Alberta, and I've been on high speed for about 4 years now. It has nothing to do with the golden horseshoe, or vancouver. It's because our government gives a shit. It's also because our telco companies spend more time developing infrastructure than trying to figure out how to prevent market entry or taking the fifth american amendment.
We have kick ass infrastructure here... be proud of it.. don't think it's just because "canada is small" or "canada is in southern clusters". It's because we're just downright better eh. (/me ducks)

Broadband in Japan and Canada is much cheaper - how can they do it?

Unbundling has not played a major part in Canadian broadband. BCE (Bell Canada and others) are a near monopoly on the telco side, but got into DSL early because of competition from cable companies. Cable modems came out in Canada in 1996. During 2000, service problems with cable modems then lead to a growth in DSL access in Canada. There are about 2.6 million broadband users in Canada at end-of-year 2001.

Meanwhile, ISPs have accused Bell Canada of anti-competitive DSL pricing. I can believe this, because Verizon played a similar game versus the CLECs (and I got cheap DSL...)

But recently "Industry Minister Allan Rock Bell Canada shot an arrow at the heart of the Internet, levying a $3-5 toll on a streaming movie and a $2.50 surcharge on a regular radio listener. They raised their basic rates 13 percent, and tacked on a surcharge of $7.90 (Canadian) a gig after 5 gigabyte."

In addition, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) charges 4.5% of Canadian telco revenues for a fund to subsidize service in high-cost areas (i.e. rural ones).

Check out the Canadian Broadband Task Force that wants to spend over CA$4 billion on broadband.

Other countries have it easier because of population concentration. Korea has 15% of its population (7.5 million people) connected to broadband. This is because 70% of Koreans live in 7 largest cities, and 40% of urban apartments are served by DSL. I know average local loop lengths are smaller in Europe due to its smaller area and higher urbanization, and I believe Japan has the same situation as well.

The Korean government has also financed a 22,000 km intercity backbone, is distributing satellite receivers in rural areas, and provides low-interest loans to providers.

It seems that Shaw, my provider, Cogeco and even Rogers are sufficiently prepared for this event. Of course old Ted Roger is going to lose a bit of his shirt on this thing and they have been slow to react because of their interests in @home and partnerships with AT&T, and there are still lots of people questioning if Rogers can support all of their customers. Atleast 10% may be without service tonight.

Shaw made the conversion months ago, mostly due to poor service from Excite, especially with email.

But thank god for out socialist interfering government, because by 2004 they are promising us broadband in every pot. Now if everyone had a computer too. Even the CRTC is not going to interfere with the net at this point anyway. Beside it is because of there regulations that I pay less for my cable service, only $40 Cnd, that is like 5 US, and I get more bandwidth and better service.

We may not be able to support a useful military, but we all can get streaming video of the latest war to our home from cnn.

Excuse me while I download the latest Suse version.

It is 40 below and I don't give a ...

us canucks have WAY better Broadband-for-All goodness than the americans. have you hugged your national broadband taskforce today? :)

The reason this didn't work is because the amount of people with dialup modems is inversely related to the amount of mini dishes being nailed on houses, you just can't see it well.

the only people who have no better option than a dialup anymore live in buttcrack sask... but have no fear... buttcrack will soon have a big phat pipe too

if people can afford a couple grand on their PC they'll pay to have decent net access. the reason this didnt work is becase free dialup is for poor people, and poor people don't own computers.