Rural Canadians and Broadbank Internet...
As soon as the hostess introduced me, and let the ladies know I worked for one of the major telcos in Canada, the first question out of their mouths was if rural Canada was going to get better high speed internet service. The second question was about the wireless auction, and who the new mobile phone players were going to be.
Don't doubt for a minute that the average Canadian [someone not intimately linked to telecommunications in Canada] doesn't know what's going on with broadband internet or the cellular industry. They *are* paying attention. They *are* investing time in reading and understanding. Most importantly, they *ARE* asking questions and building insightful opinions.
One of the ladies was from Perry Sound. She uses dial-up still. High speed internet is out of her price range (and would be for us urbanites too) at $150/month. She didn't think that high speed would ever get to her at a price that was affordable. She was worried that once her son's friends started to get high speed, she was going to have a big fight on her hands.
Even the ladies who lived in Brantford proper had feedback and colour commentary about the state of high speed internet availability in rural Ontario. They also had some pretty strong opinions of wireless providers, and even asked me about Globalive and Google.
Canada needs a national broadband strategy - FP Comment
Canada needs a national broadband strategy