Small ISPs ‘optimistic’ about CRTC broadband fund

A CRTC decision outlining how its $750 million fund for rural broadband will be administered “looks quite encouraging,” according to the president of the Canadian Network Operators’ Consortium (CNOC). Matt Stein said in a phone interview the “process they’ve laid out stands out to introduce a lot of great options for some Canadians who don’t have a lot of options today.” The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) was more critical, with executive director John Lawford saying that the “comparative selection” approach the CRTC opted for isn’t necessarily simpler than the reverse auction approach PIAC had suggested. In Thursday's decision, the CRTC outlined it would judge each application on a number of criteria instead of having interested parties bid for the funding. “This is going to be a really top-heavy fund. It will have a lot of administration because there’s all of these criteria to be evaluated,” as well as multiple calls for applications, Lawford said in a phone interview Friday. “I’m not sure it won’t be more work for applicants than an auction would have been.” Lawford also said it introduces an element of uncertainty, given that the CRTC will use various criteria to judge projects, but it’s “hard to know which criteria they’re favouring over other ones.” Stein said it’s too early to determine how easy or difficult it will be for small providers to access the fund. “We’ll need to learn a little more about the application process, as it actually gets rolled out,” he said, including how the areas that qualify for funding are mapped out. “But at least for now, I’m quite optimistic about it,” he said. “As a small provider, sometimes the reverse auction favours… the largest provider with the deepest pockets,” Stein added. “It’s nice to see that wasn’t chosen and we’re very pleased about that.” Lawford also said the more subjective nature of the approach the CRTC has chosen leaves them open to criticism. “On the one hand they’re going to be regulating these companies, on the other they’re handing out money to them based on criteria which are, at the end of the day… subjective,” he said. “It’s a judgement call between two companies that look similar.” He said that leaves the regulator “open to discussions of whether things are being done completely fairly if you use this comparative selection approach.” Stein said he didn’t see the CRTC choosing to administer the fund itself as an issue, noting “they make ... probably the biggest decisions in Canadian telecom, and I don’t think that’s incongruous with decisions around where to and how to dole out money.” Lawford added that the CRTC will also be taking on a lot of extra work to administer the project, and it’s unclear whether they’ll need to hire a significant amount of staff. CRTC spokeswoman Patricia Valladao said in an email Friday that the CRTC is “currently in the process of analysing those resourcing needs,” but that the administrative costs won’t come out of the $750 million earmarked for projects. The CRTC’s announcement drew criticism from some groups who said the regulator shouldn’t have set speed minimums of 25 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload, or half of those specified in its basic service objective. Lawford, though, said he doesn’t have an issue with the lowered speed minimums. “It’s a universal service objective, not a universal service obligation,” he said. “If they’re in an area where putting the speed up to 50 as a requirement will mean that area is very unlikely to get bid on for some time, then I’d rather have people connected at 25 than not connected for four years waiting for 50 .” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca

Small ISPs ‘optimistic’ about CRTC broadband fund

News | September 28, 2018

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Small ISPs ‘optimistic’ about CRTC broadband fund

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