Woman spearheads local Internet service provider in Ulukhaktok, N.W.T.

The days of the Internet monopoly are numbered.

I'd like to see the FedGov review evidenced based use cases from municipalities, like the one reported here by John Last from CBC who have done it themselves and other variations on PPPs. This helps build the case for thinking outside the facilities-based telecom box. 

Internet is an essential service which has been repeatedly acknowledged by @BernJordanMP and @NavdeepSBains. As such it must be equitably and ubiquitously accessible. By equitable I mean the same price and performance regardless of one's geographic location or demographic characteristics. This translates into universal FTTP and LTE access.

Ubiquity and equity will never be achieved through the facilities-based competition regime. Evidence of this is the digital divide has grown wider since deregulation in 1993 and the 50/10 Mbps target by 2030 will only make it wider as many higher income urban areas enjoy 1/1 Gbps service today. Therefore, the facilities-based regime should be declared dead and the infrastructure and the services be structurally separated.

Telecom infrastructure is a natural monopoly like water and electricity so it must be operated as a public utility. However, the services that run over it are competitive with hundreds of applications service providers in the marketplace today. Therefore, multiple parties, such as non-dominant carriers on wireline and mobile virtual network operators on wireless, may compete to provide services and apps; and because these providers don't own the telecom infrastructure they can't use their facilities hegemony to roadblock competitors as ILECs have done these past 26 years. More services competition will lead to better services and lower rates for consumers. A ubiquitous, unified and standards-based FTTP and LTE national network will lead to lower capital and operating costs and higher uptime availability which is critical to support scalability and usability of the system.

Sydonie Okheena is spearheading the effort to establish a community network in Ulukhaktok. She's travelling to complete her technical training with the Indigenous Hawaiian community of Pu`uhonua O Waimanalo. (Angela Gzowski)