Slipping through the 'net

In a recent chat with MD, we lamented the lack of a national effort to make high-speed “wi-fi” a free public utility across Canada. And we chastised the current approach taken by Ottawa to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on dying, 19th-century businesses like General Motors.

I think about it all the time – someone born in 1985 would have grown up not knowing a world with rabbit ears on a UHF/VHF television, or rotary dial telephones, or even pinball. It’s no shock that the new economy is embodied in the Internet – and we’re not just talking about replacing bricks and mortar stores. It’s developing new business concepts to connect knowledge from different parts of the world, it’s selling local/specialized goods to a global market; it’s replacing the need for travel with new ways to meet virtually – the possibilities are endless.

Michael Geist – a law professor from University of Ottawa – recently appeared before a Canadian Senate committee to brief them on Canadian broadband and wireless, and its rather miserable state. Actually, miserable is an understatement – deplorable is probably better. Let me lay it out for you because, like our leadership in high-speed trains or peacekeeping, here is another example of Canada slipping to the point where we are now trounced by other countries.

It’s a real shame. Geist says it best:

Our Failing System
“Last year the World Economic Forum pointed to problems in the wireless market as a key reason for Canada's slipping global ranking for "network readiness." We moved from 6th worldwide in 2005 to 13th today. Canada ranks 75th in terms of the number of mobile subscribers, trailing countries such as El Salvador, Kazakhstan and Libya. It lags behind countries such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, Sweden and Norway on mobile pricing.”

Once a Leader
“We should recognize that Canada was once a leader in the area. In the late 1990s, we became the first country in the world to ensure that every school from coast to coast to coast was connected to the Internet. Soon after that we launched the National Broadband Task Force committed to developing a strategy to ensure that all Canadians had access to high-speed networks.”

No Longer Ahead
“The Telecommunications Policy Review Panel from a couple of years ago undertook a detailed analysis of the Canadian marketplace with the goal of identifying whether the market could be relied upon to ensure that all Canadians would have access to broadband. Their conclusion was that it would not be relied upon. The panel concluded that at least 5 per cent of Canadians — hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens — will be without broadband access without public involvement.”

The Cost of Speed
“Last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), released its latest report on global broadband, and the results should be mandatory reading for anyone concerned with these issues… Canada is relatively expensive, ranking 14th for monthly subscription costs at $45.65. By comparison, Japan costs $30.46 cents and the U.K. is $30.63. Second, the Canadian Internet is slow, ranking 24th out of the 30 OECD countries. It is truly a different Internet experience for people in Japan, Korea and France, where the speed allows for applications and opportunities that we do not have.”

Fibre, None
“Moreover, Canada lags behind in fibre connections direct to home fibre with 0 per cent penetration, according to the OECD. By comparison, Japan sits at 48 per cent, Korea at 43 per cent, Sweden at 20 per cent and the United States, which has been slow in this area, is at 4 per cent.”

“…[W]hen you combine speed and pricing, Canada drops to 28th out of the 30 OECD countries for price per megabyte. In other words, as consumers, we pay more for less — higher prices, slower speeds.”

A Lack of Choice
“Canada is one of only four OECD countries where consumers have no alternative but to take a service with bit caps. That means the service provider caps the amount of bandwidth that the consumer can use each month. In almost every other OECD country, consumers at least have a choice between providers that use bit caps and those that do not.”

Moving Towards a Solution
“We need a firm commitment to universal broadband access akin to the same type of commitment that we once had to universal telephone service. As I say, it is the price of admission for much that the Internet has to offer. All Canadians should have access to reliable, high-speed networks. In addition, we need a strategy for faster networks because it is clear that we cannot rely on our existing networks as we slip further and further behind. This might mean more competition, market-based incentives and potentially community-based networks as local communities take this issue into their own hands.”

Time to take action. This is a competitive disadvantage for our entire country and frankly, if the government is spending taxpayer money like a drunken sailor, they should spend it on increasing our access to technology instead of wasting it on unsustainable peddling of Dodge Ram pickup trucks.
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AN UPDATE FROM LONDON, UK

Londoners, knowing the state of Canadian internet access and our declining economic productivity, have taken to random acts of kindness. Here, some benevolent soul has left us a bite or two of a smoked salmon and cucumber sandwich. Cheers, London! And God Save the Queen!