Waiting to Connect

Summary

The internet is essential to nearly every aspect of our lives. We go online to work, access e-learning, register to vote, share our personal stories, connect with friends and family, and so much more. While we depended on this connection prior to COVID-19, the pandemic only pushed more of our lives online. It also made it clear how critical it is to ensure access to a reliable, affordable, high-quality connection for the communities that still do not have one.

Compared to urban areas, broadband connectivity in rural and remote communities is generally less likely to be available, slower, and more expensive. The connectivity gap is a decades-long problem that has not improved despite continued calls from those living with underservice. For the people living in these communities, low-quality internet limits social, cultural, and economic opportunities and choices.

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has developed the High-throughput and Secure Networks Challenge program, aimed at developing innovative technologies to enable the provision of ultra-fast broadband in rural and remote communities. In support of the program, the NRC asked the CCA to assess the multiple legal, economic, ethical, social and policy challenges that limit deploying and adopting these technologies in rural and remote communities.

Waiting to Connect examines the systemic issues that have resulted in a persistent connectivity gap, and the promising practices and guiding principles that can help achieve equitable connectivity.

Key findings

Broadband connectivity underservice in rural and remote communities, including Indigenous communities, is not only a technology problem. Existing network technologies would greatly increase the quality of broadband connectivity in rural and remote regions, and some rural communities already have access to ultra-fast speeds.

If a new technology or funding program is offered without consideration of long-standing legal, regulatory, ethical, social, and economic policy challenges, it will primarily improve connectivity for those with the resources to take advantage of it, leaving the most underserved communities further behind. For this reason, Waiting to Connect focuses on the systemic challenges that have consistently contributed to the ongoing underservice for millions of people living in rural and remote regions in Canada.

There is no one size-fits-all solution to bringing connectivity to rural or remote areas. The provision of equitable and sufficient broadband connectivity must be place-based, while also considering available technology, parallel essential infrastructure, and funding.

Report Findings

• Closing the connectivity gap means providing broadband in rural and remote communities comparable to that in urban centres in terms of speed, quality, and cost.
• The incremental approaches to addressing the connectivity gap have been unsuccessful at establishing universal connectivity in Canada.
• In Canada, there are critical knowledge and transparency gaps related to the availability, adoption rates, and economic benefits of broadband connectivity; these gaps create challenges for evaluation and limit accountability.
• Communities without access to affordable, high-quality broadband connectivity are cut off from the key services and economic and cultural benefits enjoyed by better-connected communities. The problem is most severe for remote and Indigenous communities.
• High-quality broadband connectivity in Indigenous communities supports self-determination and Indigenous economic reconciliation by elevating Indigenous participation, innovation, and leadership in the economy. Current approaches to deliver broadband connectivity have left Indigenous communities in Canada at a disproportionate disadvantage.
• Some place-based ownership models and approaches — including community-based and hybrid approaches — have succeeded in bringing high-quality broadband connectivity to rural and remote regions in Canada and abroad.

Proposed Principles for Equitable Connectivity

Based on available evidence and documented lived experiences, the Expert Panel identified key principles to help achieve equitable connectivity:

• Equity: The full integration of equity dimensions in the design of programs and policies — as an explicit goal — and the creation of provisions to guarantee connectivity services.
• Universality: Sufficient funding to provide universal service to all communities as opposed to a zero-sum, competition-based model, which is, by definition, not universal.
• Future-proof technology: Networks designed around current and future bandwidth needs.
• Transparency: Funding criteria, metrics, and more detailed connectivity data made easily available.
• Accountability: A department or ministry consistently responsible for periodic reporting, especially if public funds are used.
• Competition and redundancy: More options and backup services for rural and remote regions.
• Place-based and needs-based approaches: Differentiated policies and programs built around the specific needs and potential of rural and remote communities.
• Meaningful inclusion of, and benefits for, Indigenous communities from the outset, including in program design.
• Indigenous reconciliation, including economic reconciliation through the elevation of Indigenous participation, innovation, and leadership in the economy.