[Advisors] CRTC hears a compelling story from public interest groups

[Beaton]

Marita .. It seems to me that this presentation by PIAC and the others is
only going to benefit those in urban centres who have access to the
support systems to be able to access this potential fund. The folks in the
north have little or no access to these types of support systems. There
are so many questions and problems with this request by these groups. The
administration of such a program is probably going to cost just as much as
the benefits to low-income users. Incumbent telecom providers will be able
to charge customers for this fund according to the presentation. It will
then be directed to low income households so they can purchase subsidized
service from these same providers. So all this fund is really doing is
creating new customers for the telecom industry who will are already
robbing Peter to pay Paul. And the folks in the unserved and underserved
regions of Canada remain off-line as a result.

The FMCC presentation is recommending a Northern Infrastructure and
Services Fund that will make the funds the telecom industry has been
collecting over the years accessible to community and regional
organizations so they can build, operate, and sustain their own networks.
The telcos have received hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars over the years
and still there are unserved and unserved regions and communities in
Canada. I would hope TC would put our support into get the connections
into communities that remain off-line and underserved.

Brian

On 2016-04-17, 10:10 PM, "Marita Moll" <mmoll at ca.inter.net> wrote:

>The Basic Service hearings are getting interesting.  Here are some
>positions that I think we would support:
>
>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/crtc-urged-to-consider-f
>und-to-improve-internet-access-affordability/article29635503/
>
>As a reminder about what we submitted please see our website tc.ca
>
>Marita
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