On 2016-12-23 10:37, Seth Mattinen wrote:
It would certainly suck to be an ISP in Canada and be forced to fund your competitors. Or does Canada not have any small privately run ISPs like we do in the US?
We not only have smaller ISPs, but also a wholesale framework where ISPs can purchase access to last mile from the incumbents (telco and cable). The current plan (which will be defined in a subsequent proceeding) calls for any ISPs with more than 10 million in revenues to contribute to the fund, the amount being a percentage of their revenues. The percentage will be adjusted annually to cause contributions to the fund to total the desired amount ($100 million on year 1, increasing by $25m until iut reaches $200). And yeah, this means ISPs contribute money which will be used by a competitor to deploy in rural areas. Of course, since we're talking about billions to get all Canadians connected, this is peanuts.