I just posted this comment on the CRTC's "basic telecommunications needs" topic page (see:http://consultation.crtc.gc.ca/en/consultation/40/how-can-it-be-ensured-canadians-basic-telecommunications-needs-are-met).:
We are moving to a wireless world. As the capacity and speed of wireless systems increases, I can see a world in the near future where companies abandon their expensive and difficult to maintain wired systems and switch to wireless only. I don't see replacing cooper wires with optical fibre to the home as a long-term solution.
The future will be wireless. High-speed wireless internet will dominate, and we will all switch again to a different platform to use exclusively in connecting Internet, TV, phone and other services. The existing service providers will aggressively protect their turf to keep the customer bases they have now, and that means the high cost for those services will just be transferred to this new paradigm. Many would like to promote existing wireless technology currently used for cell phone and mobile data as the future wireless connections for TV, Internet and home phone.
It doesn't have to be this way. If the federal, provincial and municipal governments considered the Internet Highway as vital as the existing road highways then new wifi infrastructure costs could be more effectively controlled, and the infrastructure would belong to and benefit all Canadians.
Internet connections in the home would be made directly from one's computer to a government high-speed wifi connection close by. Companies like Aruba (owned by Hewlett Packard) are already selling outdoor wifi systems they claim to have speeds up to 2.5 Gigabits per second (see:http://www.arubanetworks.com/…/ne…/access-points/330-series/). It would be easy for municipalities to install these systems everywhere on the top of power poles or light standards, and local residents would be able to connect without any cables running to their homes or be forced to buy or rent any modems.
Companies like Rogers and Bell could still provide services like cell phones, but would be relegated to content providers for the TV and movie products they own and license. This would truly bring in a pick-and-pay system where "all-you-can-eat" systems like Netflix would compete side by side with single show/movie rent/own systems like Apple TV. This system is more in line with what customers truly want. By controlling the delivery system (wireless wifi everywhere), governments could eliminate the oversight regulation of content and leave it up to the consumer to pick and choose what they want to watch. This is the only system that makes any sense moving forward.
Years ago, the federal government connected almost every school and library in Canada with Internet fibre optic cable connections (CANARIE system). Upgrading and deploying local rural and neighbourhood wifi connections to that backbone would truly make Canada one of the few countries in the world with inexpensive high-speed internet available everywhere. This, in my opinion, is the most valuable infrastructure project that this or any future government could undertake to transform the Canadian economy.
Because many rural residents have been under-serviced, they, instead of high-population municipalities, should be placed on the priority list for this new service. This would mean that residents in Plaster Rock NB, for example, would finally be able to get the true high-speed internet service that has been denied them because both Bell and Rogers have decided that offering the high-speed internet and additional TV channels, that the rest of us enjoy, is not cost effective in this rural community.
As municipalities that have done this have found (See CBC article:http://www.cbc.ca/…/…/fast-fibre-optic-internet-arrives-in-m...), average cost to the consumer comes in at $50 or less for unlimited Internet at fibre optic speeds. This service could easily handle Internet, TV, home phone and other services, like security alarm systems. Subsidies for low income families could lower that price to as little as $10 per month. But the most important thing is that the system would not be driven for profit and the only shareholders would be the Canadian public who would also be the primary beneficiaries of such a system.
We would never ask private companies to build and maintain the Trans Canada Highway. Why would we ask private companies to build and maintain our Trans Canada WIFI Highway?
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