A non-profit organization that is working to ensure equitable internet access for everyone is calling for a review of the federal Broadband Fund.
The SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) Network specifically takes issue with the eligibility criteria laid out in the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) $750-million Broadband Fund.
“SWIFT is encouraging all rural broadband stakeholders, including residents, to submit comments to the CRTC in support of a review of the commission’s restrictive Broadband Fund eligibility in order to increase equal access to funding for all under-served Canadians,” said SWIFT communications manager Melissa O’Brien.
The CRTC has a goal to provide all Canadians with broadband service of 50 megabits per second (Mbps) for download and 10 Mbps for upload. The problem, according to SWIFT, is the 25 km hexagons being used to determine whether an area is served, under-served or partially served.
“Currently, the commission’s assessment criteria used to evaluate applicants excludes ‘partially served’ areas, a hexagon with at least one household that has access to 50/10 target speeds. ‘Partially served’ areas are not eligible for funding,” O’Brien said.
Someone else in that 25 km area could still be in an internet 'dead zone,' she noted.
SWIFT wants those areas to be eligible. O’Brien said the CRTC seems to think, “at some point in time, the market (of telecom service providers) is going to step into that area” and it will work itself out.
“We’re saying it’s not likely,” she said.
SWIFT has been working with the University of Guelph to gather data from telecom service providers. The data show 100,000 of the 230,000 under-served businesses and households in southwestern Ontario, including Simcoe County, are ineligible for funding.
The CRTC, in a statement on the government website, says it is providing $750 million “over the first five years to support projects to build or upgrade infrastructure to provide fixed and mobile wireless broadband internet service to under-served Canadians. The Broadband Fund is designed to complement existing and future private investments and public funding.”
O’Brien said the fund “is excellent,” but the challenge will be “how we go about adequately spending that money and making sure it reaches all people who are under-served.”
She encourages people to provide their comments to the CRTC here. The deadline for feedback is Feb. 8.
To find out more about SWIFT, and to check out an interactive map it has created to help illustrate the issue, click here.
