National Broadband Access

InterlockingP writes: "The Canadian government, after promising high-speed internet access for every community in the country by 2004, has concluded a report on the cost of implementing such a scheme. The total cost, from $1.85 billion to $4.5 billion ($CAN), would be shared by all levels of government and the private sector. Has any other country even addressed this issue yet? It looks like Canada is leading the way (again) with increasing availability of cheap internet access for all to enjoy. The story is covered in the Toronto Star and in The Globe and Mail."

Comments

Re:small government anyone?

[Malc]

"With my libertarian ideals"...

Most people who start off like that are Americans. This isn't meant as flamebait, but Americans seem to have a rather unique perspective in the western world concerning society and trust of government. As far as Canada is concerned, I think Stockwell Day and his Canadian Alliance party may have been taking lessions from south of the border. But for a majority of people in the north western hemisphere (excluding the US), there is more trust of governemt and an expectation that the government will do what is right for society in general, providing a better standard of living the poor, potentially at the expense of the rich. This contrasts highly with the US were people seem more interested in themselves and getting to the top at everybody else's expense. Americans have such an obsession with money!

Re:Government Funded Internet Access?

[FFFish]

Here, chew on this *American* bit of media coverage of our healthcare system: [Canada's Burning!
Media myths about universal health coverage].

You've been lied to by corporate interests in your country. And you *believed* what they told you. To shame!



--

Speaking as a Canadian ...

[crovira]

Our government is less intrusive and far less restrictive that the US's. (We get cable porn disguised as "art," we smoke pot and don't risk arrest, a criminal record and anal probes by nasty goons for a crummy joint. :-)

At least Chretien knows how many mukes everybody's got. Did you see Dubya's face when somebody told him how many he's got to play with.

The rest of the world needs a shield from the US, NOT the other way around.

You elected him...Uh, you didn't. Bwahaha...

No I sit corrected. You're not a democracy either.

Re:Government Funded Internet Access?

[Arandir]

When a corporation wants to charge you something you can refuse. When the government wants to charge you something, and you refuse, you go to jail. If you resist going to jail you will be shot.

I didn't like what Microsoft was selling, so I didn't buy it. I didn't like what the government was selling, but they sent their goons to collect anyway.

Re:Glad I'm not a poor person in Canada

[csbruce]

If I were a poor person in Canada I would be outraged that I was forced to pay for highways for everyone in the country when I couldn't even come close to affording a car for myself!

Interesting but a little short-sighted. Most poor people can afford to ride a bus. There's also a clever phrase "if you've got it, a truck brought it." No modern economy or society would function without a massive transportation infrastructure. You are critically dependent on this whether you own a car or not.

US Power Grid

[DanThe1Man]

For you non-history buffs, the United States did a similar thing a long time ago with electrical power with the Rural Electric Program. You can read more about it here.

http://www.usda.gov/rus/electric/

The CBC kicks ass, eh..

[xtal]

It WILL end up being a slave to pro-government interest groups as the CBC is.

Do you ever listen to CBC radio? CBC television is another issue - I'd be more in favour of getting rid of that some of that rubbish - but CBC Radio and Radio Canada, along with snow removal, are one of the few things my near 50% effective income tax rate buys me in this country. The news reporting is actually good and insightful, more importantly, it's the most balanced reporting you hear anywhere IMHO. Their programs are excellent, and they actually play music that isn't top 40. Wow! I won't even get into nifty things like internet streaming, which anyone can tune into - even you Americans. (I highly recommend a good shortwave reciever and Radio Canada tho..)

This has to be a troll.. oh well, IHBT.

Government Funded Internet Access?

[Louis Savain]

It looks like Canada is leading the way (again) with increasing availability of cheap internet access for all to enjoy.

Maybe internet access should be entirely funded by the government just like public roads and highways. After all, it is called the information superhighway. Besides, society benefits as a whole from increased communication.

Re:Government Funded Internet Access?

[incast]

Just to clarify this guys' GREAT point (I'm a jerk, I know):

$4.5 Billion / ~30 Million Canadians = ~150/yr.

I would be very proud to say that $150 of my tax dollars go to the broad expansion of broadband in Canada. Very proud.

And finally, I've got to get rid of this myth ASAP: The government would, most likely, not set up some sort of crown ISP to run all this! Throughout both articles, it is stressed that this is a government/private sector joint venture!

There's not going to be what's left of our army banging on my door because I'm running a FTP server!

There's not going to be any monopoly to drive prices through the roof!

Besides, we're Canadians... we wouldn't do that anyway.

Re:Government Funded Internet Access?

[Doomdark]

4.5 billion$ is pretty reasonable (how many inhabitants does Canada have? 20 millions? that'd make it ~200 canadian$ per year) compared to what 'efficient' corporations would leech from end customers for similar systems. Compare this with health-care. Citizens of USA pay twice as much for health-care (total cost of various health insurance systems including private and medicare) than their European counterparts, and probably get on average about same level of service (everywhere with enough money you can, of course, get even better health-care from private hospitals... but I'm talking about basic health-care majority of people have)

Most economics agree that 'pure' laissez-faire system doesn't quite work as well in education and health care sector. Corporations just won't invest enough for long term, and if/when state has to subside, overhead grows more than with more traditional 'mixed' systems (combining public and private sectors). Whether same applies to infrastructure (roads, networks) is debatable, but seeing how in most countries roads and railroads are handled by society, it seems possible that state might do a more efficient job there too.

Note though that this should only be taking care of (low-level) infrastructure. ISP services should be taken care of by companies, with the possible exception that there could be a state-owner 'basic level ISP' available. It'd be like AOL-by-the-state; geeks and power users wouldn't touch it, but regular Joe sixpacks, and everyone's proverbial mother/grandmother could use it; it'd be "free" (no out-of-pocket costs, or nominal) and offer basic stuff, but not directly compete with higher level ISP services (if there is such a thing...)

Finally, even though it'd mean some money away from ISPs (not infrastructure level, probably, as govt would most likely by those services, not compete), the net effect of people (and companies) getting basic service for much lower cost might mean more money to use for other purposes.

Re:Government Funded Internet Access?

[Waffle Iron]

Hell yeah, I will take that any time over single huge monopoly run by bunch of politicians.

Here's an example of the key difference: Since 1975 the leadeship of the huge government monopoly has changed 5 times. The leadership of the huge software monopoly has changed 0 times.

The government monopoly is supposed to be accountable to each citizen and voter. The software monopoly is supposed to be accountable to each shareholder, in proportion to the shares held. Guess who holds the most shares?

Re:Hm..

[Zalgon 26 McGee]

In a word, no. Nortel's "loss" is almost entirely on paper - they are writing off goodwill. Or, in other terms, they're publicly admitting that they paid far too much for what they got in their acquisition binge, and are adjusting thier books to reflect this.

Besides, there's no Nortel plant in Shawinigan.

CommunityNET

[|<amikaze]

I'm not sure about the rest of the country, but in Saskatchewan, we are getting a network called CommunityNet. According to the web page, they will be providing two different types of connections. 10Mbit and 100Mbit :). A friend of mine already has it at the school he does tech work for, and it is amazing. He has the "beta" version that is only 4(i think)Mbit, and it screams. SaskTel claims that they will have 150 communities connected to the network by September 2001, and 366 communities connected within the next three years.

According to the plan, they are only bringing it to communities with educational, health, or government facilities, but that still covers a huge portion of the province.

Before the Hail america bullshit begins

[loraksus]

There's a difference between a media ban and the communications decency act or whatever the hell the Americans passed.

I also haven't heard of a kid being expelled from school for posting a website about the faculty at the school in Canada, although in the states...

Oh. Required filtering on school computers if the school wants federal $ is also another wonderful "American" invention.

TBYP

The slashdot 2 minute between postings limit:
Pissing off coffee drinking /.'ers since Spring 2001.

Re:A Government's place

[willy_me]

All the government is doing is ensuring that every town and community has access to high-speed internet. Especially schools, hospitals, and other facilities associated with the government. It's to ensure that even those living in Tuktoyaktuk (yes, it really exists - Hole and Metalica actually had a concert up there a few years ago) will have the same access to educational material as those living in the capital. It's to ensure that growing up in a small community doesn't limit your potential. It's about equality and equal opportunity - and in that aspect is just like our medial system.

Re:The problem with this.

[RhetoricalQuestion]

Unfortunately, the problem with a government funded Internet infrastructure is that you have to abide by government rules.

Yes, including Laws, like the Privacy Act (Public Sector) and PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act -- Private Sector.)

In Canada, we have a Privacy Commissioner to help prevent violations to personal privacy from both the government and corporations. The Commissioner acts as a privacy watchdog -- the role is non-partisan.

It's not perfect, but it's pretty good.

On one hand, broadband, on the other....

[PYves]

that is Canadian tax dollars being used so that the already monopolistic broadband companies in Canada can have an -even larger- customer base without even paying for the expansion.

Of course as a member of slashdot you can bet that I'm probably online way too much and definitely would WANT broadband no matter where I lived in Canada, but that's a lot of money that could go to fund hospitals instead of giving it to some broadband ISPs (which will mean Bell, most likely) to allow them to reach more customers.

Of course it's hard to forget that I'm getting broadband baby! Let's just hope I don't get a heart attack and need some critical surgery only to find out that the money for the operation has gone to fund a project so kids in Yukon could play low-ping counterstrike..

-PYves