tocsin
join:2005-07-10
Toronto, ON | I work for a large telco in Canada. While our rurals are definitely left behind, the CRTC (our FCC) has caps on how much profit the incumbents can make off broadband services. If we make more than the permitted amount it goes into a federal "pot". That money is then reserved for upgrading our network(s) and a petition must be filed by a telco to get access to the cash (that was theirs in the first place) to upgrade. While obviously a lot goes back into the urban and suburban areas the CRTC designates a certain amount must be spent on rural areas which would otherwise be left unserviced as it is not profitable to maintain the equipment required let alone install it all for the limited number of available subscribers. I'm not aware of the FCC doing any such "regulation" for lack of a better word but it has gotten a lot of folks in rural Ontario & Quebec access to DSL they never would have had. |
