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Canada Has 'No Plan' To Bring Broadband To Rural and Remote Communities, Watchdog Says (vice.com)
Canada has "no plan" to wire up remote communities that lack high-speed broadband connections, Canada's auditor general said in a scathing report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. From a report: The report comes just two years after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, an Indigenous community at the border of Manitoba and Ontario, and vowed that his government would work to end the digital divide that leaves rural and remote communities without high-speed internet.
"This report says what we already knew, which is that there is no strategy to bring the rest of Canada online," Laura Tribe, executive director of advocacy group Openmedia, said in a phone call. "What we keep hearing from the government is increasing numbers -- 80 percent, 90 percent -- but until we're at 100 percent, the problem isn't solved."
"This report says what we already knew, which is that there is no strategy to bring the rest of Canada online," Laura Tribe, executive director of advocacy group Openmedia, said in a phone call. "What we keep hearing from the government is increasing numbers -- 80 percent, 90 percent -- but until we're at 100 percent, the problem isn't solved."
(I'm Canadian, in a megalopolis suburb.)
First off, in Canada, the vast vast vast majority of the population is fully high-speed, fully cellular phone, fully wired, fully connected in every way.
Second, the vast majority of rural communities are just as well connected.
Third, our idea of "high speed" is, well to be polite, leaps and bounds above what the USA thinks is "high speed". Simply put, our low-end is above the USA average.
Fourth, and this is no joke, the reason that all of your cellular providers advertise "the best network" is because all of the USA networks are just plain horrible. I've never traveled to the USA, for a day or for a week, roaming or on a local sim, without poor reception and dropped calls. When cellular providers advertise in Canada, it's just funny because all of the big carriers are exactly the same -- superb. Years between dropped calls; seriously.
The "rural" neighbourhoods being discussed here are a collection of places that meet the following descriptions:
- fewer than ten humans for hundreds of miles, or were during the last construction phase
- refused construction of any infrastructure before, and are now changing their minds
- have chosen to live so far from others that they don't ever have paved roads
What you may not realize is that these "rural" communities want billion dollar infrastructure for a million dollar market. It would be cheaper for my tax dollars to buy them a house in the city. -- think of the expense of physically wiring them without roads for the equipment transport