The Broadband Fund allocates $750 million for expanding broadband service
SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology Inc. (SWIFT) has submitted a petition to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) regarding the Broadband Fund and its current eligibility requirements. The petition makes four recommendations for changes to the broadband fund:
- Redefine service area boundaries and allow areas that are lacking access to meet the Commission’s “basic service” (50/10) thresholds as eligible to apply for funding.
- Allow lower levels of government and underserved communities to provide other evidence such as standardized Internet measurements to demonstrate their needs and therefore eligibility to apply.
- Reconsider that in “partially served” areas market forces are not “likely” to improve connectivity anytime soon.
- At a minimum, allow underserved areas in “partially served” zones to be eligible to apply as part of larger projects to incentivize private sector participation.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has submitted comments to the CRTC in support of some aspects of the petition. If you are interested in providing comments, they can be submitted electronically to the CRTC by clicking here.
For more information on SWIFT and their recommendations, click here.
The deadline to submit comments is February 8, 2019.
For enquiries, please contact:
Wyatt Skovron
Policy Analyst
wyatt@RMAlberta.com
Warren Noga
Policy Analyst
warren@RMAlberta.com
Tasha Blumenthal
Director of External Relations & Advocacy
tasha@RMAlberta.com