The Digital Divide
The Digital Divide
There's never been a better time to work remotely in the Cariboo. If you can get connected.
The pandemic bestowed a new acronym upon us. WFH. But working from home is hard when you can’t get on the WWW. In the Cariboo, an internet connection is never a foregone conclusion, making it difficult to keep pace in cyberspace. It’s time for a change.
The internet may be an information superhighway in plenty of locales, but like the physical roads of the Cariboo, web connectivity in the region can be a hit or miss affair. Pockets of high-speed internet access are found near population centres, and some people who live between latitudes 48.4 to 51.7 degrees can access (and afford) the Starlink satellite internet service, but if there’s one word to describe overall connectivity in the Cariboo it’s this. Sucks.
The Cariboo is hampered by a digital divide — limiting opportunities for individuals and businesses to take advantage of online access. As more and more services, such as filling out government forms, become tasks for which online access is the preferred approach, the divide grows, largely along economic lines. For this region to fully participate in the greener, cleaner Canada we keep hearing about, a radical re-imagining of Cariboo connectivity is needed. Expanded broadband coverage is no longer a ‘nice to have’.
Some steps have been taken. The Cariboo Regional District (disclosure: my most recent employer) commissioned a connectivity report highlighting the vast areas of the region where service is poor or nonexistent. Let me summarize its findings. Build it already.
There has also been the requisite announcements (and re-announcements) of grand intentions at the federal level. Canada’s federal government has promised ‘50/10’ service to all Canadians in less than a decade. It’s part of the $2.75 billion National Broadband Internet Service Availability program which would deliver 50 mbps download and 10 mbps upload speeds across the country:
The Universal Broadband Fund was launched in November 2020. The projects being announced today were approved within six months of the formal launch of the now $2.75-billion program. Projects funded under the UBF, the Connecting British Columbia program as well as through other public and private investments, will help connect 98% of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026 and achieve the national target of 100% connectivity by 2030. (link)
Call me a cynic, but I don’t think they are going to hit their milestones. Let’s unpack the numbers anyway. Three billion dollars does not go far in the telecommunications world. According to the always-reliable Wikipedia, Starlink cost $10 billion approx. to get up and running and the company expects revenues to reach $30 billion by 2025. Global numbers of course, but if a private company can triple their connectivity investment in just a few years, it raises crucial questions for Cariboo internet users:
Why isn’t the federal government providing an affordable, publicly-owned internet utility in Canada - so that Canadians can stop ‘enjoying’ being one of the five most expensive places in the world with regard to online access?
Are we leaving the strategic and emergency response importance of online communications in the country to the whims of private companies and the vagaries of the market?
We will blow through $3 billion in no time, and may be left with the same patchwork of connectivity and little improvement for most rural Canadians. Why are we penny-wise and pound-foolish on this crucial investment?
To be fair, there are some Canadian ownership rules in place for telecoms, the federal government has approved some projects, and they are shoveling money into current service providers’ bank accounts at high speed!
Universal Broadband Fund Projects in the Cariboo
These projects largely focus on low-hanging fruit — communities with enough population density (or potential growth) aka customers to help foot the bill. As well, indigenous communities are being given substantive help in creating access for their members. This latter effort is right and proper and one tiny step towards redeeming a horrific track record in the nation’s dealings with First Nations. But it still leaves many people in the Cariboo offline.
Unfortunately, the cost of connectivity can be measured in thousand of dollars per household in the rural and remote areas of the Cariboo. That makes it easy for outsiders to dismiss the desire for better internet as rural entitlement. Nonetheless, there are strong rationales for an immediate big spend on broadband in Central BC and points North:
Emergency response and life safety
A common method of notifying Cariboo residents of evacuation alerts and orders due to wildfires and flooding is the use of digital services such as Everbridge and Voyent. They allow a user to set up notifications for a particular area and choose how to receive them (voice message to landline or mobile, email, or text). Catch #1 - you need to go online to fill out the necessary registration. Catch #2 - if you don’t have an Internet connection and aren’t waiting by the landline, you may not get notified in a timely fashion and significant resources and money may be needed to effect a (hopefully successful) rescue.
National security
Climate change puts Canada’s northern regions into play as territory worth having. Connected citizens could be a crucial advantage in combating aggression from other countries, providing ‘boots on the ground' intelligence long before personnel and matériel can be transported from bases to the south (to provide one example). Geo-political instability is looking like the new ‘new normal’. It’s time to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Our connectivity tools must be in place and ready to go.
Economic Opportunity
A true information superhighway in the Cariboo will be a two-way street with plenty of on-ramps. Bringing broadband to remote communities creates real opportunities for prosperity. Not only will it allow residents to better share their goods, services, and expertise to the world, it allows for education and similar opportunities to reach a larger audience. Imagine the cost-savings to families if the first few years of university could be done from home, rather than having to move to the Coast or parts beyond. It might also help local worker shortages, as stay-at-home students fill the role of willing workers for part-time and entry-level jobs while they study. Better internet would also make it easier to attract self-employed professionals who require online access as part of their day-to-day work.
For good or ill, the digital ship has sailed. Today, and in the future, online access will be necessary to be a part of the larger world. Should rural Canadians have equal access to broadband and the opportunities it brings, even if it costs more to service places outside the urban centres? Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.