Telecommunication tower with beautiful sky background

Comment: CRTC scales back internet ambitions for remote areas

Being realistic about rural internet speeds is acceptable but the danger is ‘for now’ will become ‘forever’

When it comes to internet service, regardless how it is delivered, the one thing that matters most is speed – or so most Kitsilano condo dwellers would tell you. Because if you live in, say, Lunenberg County or Stony Rapids or Cambridge Bay, the thing that matters most about internet service is that you have

Rural Landscape in south western Canada and snow capped mountains

Wiring the farm for the Information Age

The new classification of broadband Internet as a basic telecommunications service 
could significantly narrow the rural-urban digital divide

Information is power, and without data, it is impossible to operate a business — any business. At the tail end of 2016, Canadian agriculture received the news it had long been waiting for: the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) declared that broadband Internet access in Canada is now considered a basic telecommunications service for


CRTC Internet decision draws strong support

The ruling will be a game-changer for Internet service in Canada say supporters

Rural Canada is in line to be a lot more online, thanks to a pre-Christmas ruling by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The commission concluded that residential and mobile Internet is a basic service required for modern life, as important as the telephone. All Canadians must have access to a basic service with

Premier Brian Pallister (r), Wade Oosterman, Pat Solman and Chris Goertzen examine a map of Highway 75.

Pallister cheers on Bell expansion

Bell Canada is targeting Highway 75 in its expanded coverage plan — provided its 
merger with MTS is approved

Reliable cellular service could be coming to Highway 75 if Bell Canada’s proposed multibillion-dollar take-over of Manitoba Telephone Services goes ahead. Speaking at the Morris Stampede and Exhibition grounds, Wade Oosterman, group president of BCE and Bell Canada, said the company promise to invest $1 billion in infrastructure over five years includes building three new

Wildfires in the RMs of Piney and Stuartburn in the spring of 2012 starkly illustrated the need for better rural telecommunications.

CRTC chief deems Internet a necessity

Modern telecommunications are still rare as hen’s teeth in rural areas, but hope is on the horizon

A mid-hearing speech, made by the chairman of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, is welcome news to rural advocates of digital equality. In recent televised remarks, Jean-Pierre Blais said the necessity of broadband Internet access was a “self-evident truth,” shifting the focus of the current review of basic telecommunications services from proving the need