Media Links: Canada Should Have an Innovation Agenda

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Big telecom's monopolistic control over the net is threatening to leave Canada with a last generation Internet. We have fallen behind many European and Asian countries in terms of Internet access, speed, and cost, moving Canada from 2nd to 10th place within the 30 OECD countries. Our broadband connection speeds have also fallen below the OECD average, and we rank 27th in terms of cost versus speed.

According to the OECD, for countries to remain internationally competitive, "Governments need to promote competition and give consumers more choices. They should encourage new networks, particularly upgrades to fibre-optic lines."

Join a nationwide town hall meeting on the future of a democratic Internet and how to strengthen independent media. The Tyee will be streaming it live Monday, June 8, starting at 4 pm Pacific time, from Toronto. Find out more about the event here.

The OECD's report states the obvious but what is Canada doing?

In the 2009 Federal budget, the Conservative government pledged to commit $225 million over the next three years for broadband to unserved communities. By contrast, Australia, which has a similar geographic breakdown to Canada, is reportedly committing AU$4.7 billion to a similar initiative. Not only is the Conservative's commitment relatively weak, it also does little to get Canadians hooked up to next generation networks.

Real competition

In accordance with the OECD, we need to create real competition in ISP markets, which means creating a plurality of ISP ownership types, including municipal and community/non-profit ISPs. The fiber-to-the-home networks appearing in countries like the Netherlands and Denmark are often developed in partnership with local municipalities or utility companies. Municipalities, utilities, and community organizations should be encouraged, and in some cases publicly financed, to enter the Internet service market.

Municipal governments are especially well positioned to inject much-needed ISP competition. University of Toronto professor of Information Studies Andrew Clement points out that municipalities "have many critical assets, including significant financial resources, control over rights of way, as well as experience in developing and operating other complex, capital-intensive infrastructures, such as roads, waterworks, and transportation systems." In fact, many municipalities own high-speed fiber networks that they can utilize relatively easily for Internet service provision.

Read the rest at:
http://www.commonground.ca/iss/215/cg215_anderson.shtml

Steve Anderson is the national coordinator for the Campaign for Democratic Media. He is a contributing author of Censored 2008 and Battleground: The Media and has written for The Tyee, Toronto Star, Epoch Times, Common Ground, Rabble.ca and Adbusters.

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Media Links is a syndicated column supported by CommonGround, TheTyee, Rabble.ca, VUE Weekly

Media Links by Steve Anderson, CommonGround, TheTyee, Rabble.ca, , VUE Weekly is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License. You must attribute this work to Steve Anderson, CommonGround, TheTyee, Rabble.ca, VUE Weekly