Broadband Internet Access for Everyone by 2004

March 2001

OTTAWA -- Tech tycoon Terry Matthews, Ottawa's premier power broker, has a vision of a health-care revolution in Tuktoyuktuk. It seems that the Northwest Territories' government put a nursing station in the remote settlement, but it was forced to reduce services drastically several times in the past year because of nursing shortages. This won't happen in the e-world Matthews sees coming--and his visions have the uncanny tendency to become reality. In the future, Matthews says, a nurse will make diagnoses of patients' illnesses in the Tuktoyuktuk clinic from hundreds or thousands of kilometers away--via broadband Internet access that allows for two-way videoconferencing and the remote inspection of medical charts, patient histories and vital-sign data. "The way we provide health care is being rewritten," Matthews says, "and broadband networks are a fundamental part of the way it's being rewritten."

Health care is only a bit of the warm, soft-focus revolution that Matthews believes in--and that Canada's Industry Minister Brian Tobin and the federal government hope to expand nationwide through their commitment to bring broadband access to every Canadian by 2004. Universal broadband access, the extension of high-powered audio, video and who knows what else Internet capacity could make e-mail addresses as ubiquitous as street addresses, could dramatically expand business opportunities, especially in remote communities, to the same level as in thriving cities. Education would be transformed. Tourism could flourish in previously unexploited regions, and residents of those regions could discover the joys of online dating.

In fact, the federal government has been working on several fronts to get its digital house in order. Committees similar to the Broadband Task Force have looked into the government's role in online education and e-commerce. The feds have poured new money into high-tech research and development, and given nearly 250,000 computers to schools. Ottawa is even moving forward--sluggishly--with an effort to put all its services online. (There was $103 million in the 2000 budget to speed up the process.) "I think we've embarked on an incredibly ambitious agenda," says Tobin, a connoisseur of such things. Since his Cabinet portfolio includes the lion's share of the major broadband initiatives, Tobin stands to profit the most politically if 1) Canadians notice and 2) they like the way the revolution is being carried out.

What happens next will depend above all on the first step--laying the electronic pipe for broadband to reach into every Canadian's life. And figuring out how best to do this will set the tone for the entire agenda, including some of the thornier questions raised by the immense project. How much new infrastructure is needed? What kind: cable, satellites, wireless, all of the above? And who should be responsible for building and maintaining all this stuff?

The answer may already be baked. "We don't think government should be in the business of building pipes," says Gaylen Duncan, president of the Information Technology Association of Canada, repeating a common mantra.

Indeed Tobin says he anticipates a variety of solutions, each tailored to regional imperatives. (A satellite network, for example, is probably the best way to deliver broadband to remote areas.) In other words, the future of Canada could be placed in a patchwork of private hands. But not private hands alone. "I don't think our task force would have been called into being, if the government felt market forces alone would produce the quality and extent of access that it thinks Canadians should have."

So what will the future really look like? Supernet will bring broadband to every community that has a school, hospital, library or government office--about 420 in all--with Edmonton paying a consortium of telecommunications companies $125 million to do the job. "We're setting the parameters, and the private sector is doing the job for us," says Roger Palmer, Alberta's deputy minister of innovation and science, who oversees the project. Everyone must be connected by 2004.

The Supernet is being installed by a consortium of large and small telcos led by Bell Intrigna, a Bell Canada subsidiary. "The unique thing about Supernet is how it segments the marketplaces," says Art Price, ceo of Calgary-based Axia NetMedia, a consortium member. To wit: in metropolitan areas with high levels of demand, the big telcos spend their own money to lay the cable and compete for market share as they go. In rural areas, smaller companies like Axia will wire schools, hospitals and government offices. In return, they get the carriage rights to the cables, which they can use to offer their services to rural communities.

As for Canada's national project, Palmer says, "they're starting from the right place." Kind words for Ottawa from Edmonton? You know there's a revolution stirring out there somewhere.

BROADBAND PRIMER

Definition: blanket buzz word for a high-speed communication network

How fast? Anything at 1 megabyte per sec. or above. Cable and DSL (digital-subscriber line) are broadband. So is cable TV. One U.S. firm has a fiber-optic network running at 10,000 kilobytes per sec.

Anything else? Yes. Satellites and wireless networks can carry broadband traffic

(Original Source: TIME Magazine and TIME Canada)