4. Infrastructure Development and Technology Issues

A modern society needs a first-class broadband infrastructure to empower its citizens with access to knowledge, services, and employment opportunities. Canada has a first-rate communications networks infrastructure and innovative telecom suppliers that bring products to the world. Yet we have slipped to 10th place (from 2nd) in broadband accessibility over the last 6 years.²² A national digital strategy needs to address the infrastructure and access issues in four areas:

• Access to broadband services;
• Access to digital television services;
• Innovation in digital media – technology, content, and services; and,
• Sources of financing for infrastructure and content.

The following subsections outline how each of these issue areas relates to the consideration of a national digital strategy.

4.1 Access to Broadband Services

Canadians have long supported a policy of universal access to communications infrastructure of one type or another. However, exactly what that infrastructure is has evolved over time. In the past, extension of “plain ordinary telephone service” (POTS) was sufficient to meet the demands of Canadian consumers and companies. As the demand for information increased throughout the 20^th century, so did the demand for technical infrastructure. In one example, Industry Canada established SchoolNet in 1995 in an effort to promote the effective use of ICT in Canadian libraries and schools. The program, which administered a number of sub-programs including LibraryNet and Canada’s Digital Collection, was discontinued in 2005 for a number of reasons, including the fact that its technical architecture was no longer capable of delivering the expected volume of content.

Over that same period of time, Canadians at large shifted from being users of dial-up Internet connections to being largely broadband subscribers. In 1997, the OECD estimated that 21,000 broadband connections existed in Canada. By June 2008, that number had reached over 9.1 million and continues to grow.²³ At the same time, the meaning of ‘broadband’ is changing with the threshold for ‘high-speed’ service moving progressively higher.²⁴ However, Canadian standards for high-speed broadband lag significantly behind other OECD countries – notably those in Scandinavia and the Pacific Rim. Korea, Japan and Singapore are leading the development of ultra high broadband (UBB) as essential infrastructure for a digital economy.

In Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) has recognized that “new and existing SMEs will require advanced, ultra high-speed broadband (i.e. ranging from a minimum bandwidth per user of 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps or more in either direction) to support their growth and ensure their competitiveness in the new knowledge economy.” Further, many sectors where SMEs predominate (e.g. digital media, gaming) are dependent on consumers having access to ultra high-speed broadband.

As such, ‘extending broadband connections’ must account for this constantly shifting technical ground and the differing needs of various economic sectors. Therefore, it is more important to establish a process for setting and revising targets for the ongoing upgrading of broadband services, rather than freeze a target around a particular speed objective. Targets should be for a short duration and changed according to the needs of the various sectors and in line with advancing technology.

The availability of appropriate broadband connections is only one aspect of ensuring a national digital infrastructure. Broadband connections and related digital technologies should become more available to lower-income and other disadvantaged Canadians.²⁵ Ensuring that all citizens can afford broadband connectivity should be part of national digital strategy. Alberta’s SuperNet provides one example of a potential broadband access model. Not only has the SuperNet connected 429 Alberta communities, and thousands of government and educational facilities, but the open-access resale service model has fostered substantial competition in the ISP market.

A particular technological element in considering access goals for Canada’s broadband infrastructure is the fast developing mobile wireless infrastructure. Indeed, as digital technologies move from the office desk to our pockets, so too must the focus of policymakers. Like wired broadband connections, wireless connectivity is largely urban and (for a variety of technical reasons) is still more expensive than desk-top connectivity.²⁶ Greater competition in pricing and new product introduction should result from the start-up of new wireless operators following the auctioning of advanced wireless services spectrum in 2008.

The adoption of a utility approach to broadband infrastructure would enable ISPs to have dedicated bandwidth. Some would argue that there would be benefits from these service providers competing more effectively with facilities-based incumbents on price, service package and quality of service. While such approaches will be considered by the CRTC in a public hearing in November 2009,²⁷ the overall policy approach should become part of the national digital strategy debate. Technology is driving new capabilities and thus raises issues about what access should be universal, and how the rates can be made affordable to the more disadvantaged Canadians.

Net neutrality

If Canada is to extend high-speed broadband connections to the far reaches of Canada, attention should be paid to fair treatment of users of those connections. Content and applications flowing over those connections should be treated in a fair manner, yet that does not mean that steps should not be taken to discourage those who clog up the networks. Therefore, the twin issues of net neutrality and traffic shaping must also be addressed in the discussion surrounding broadband access.

Facilities-based ISPs, as well as some non facilities-based ISPs, have argued for the need to manage egregious usage by very high bandwidth users. They seek to ensure the integrity of the system as well as the provision of service quality and bandwidth to the vast majority of their subscribers. Typically, traffic management (aka ‘traffic shaping’ and in the extreme, ‘throttling’) have included putting caps on peer-to-peer usage and blocking access to certain sites or services.

What limits - if any - should be set on traffic management techniques by ISPs could be debated in the context of a national digital strategy. However, the issue of net neutrality remains in its early stages, and the CRTC is currently reviewing these issues.²⁸ Whatever the position taken, Canada must ensure that its net neutrality position balances the needs of ISPs with those of developers and consumers. What needs further examination is whether a national digital strategy could set a useful framework within which the CRTC (and Industry Canada) would be able to set the appropriate regulatory conditions.