If history is any indication — and generally, it is — internet giants are not about to take meaningful action any time soon to deploy high-speed broadband internet infrastructure in rural areas.
Waiting for the benevolence of billion-dollar corporations to deliver us from the digital dark age is a losing bet.
The best we are likely to see from the private sector at this point — that’s if we’re lucky — is wireless upgrades, which while an improvement, do not come even remotely close to comparing with the speed and reliability of cables in the ground.
Barely a century ago, electricity was considered a luxury for urban centres, and the vast majority of rural people in North America remained in the dark because the private sector was simply not interested in investing in the infrastructure, which would eventually have turned a profit, just not enough.
While the private sector dragged its heels, rural economies faltered farther and farther behind as disparity between cities and the countryside grew, and it became increasingly painfully clear that being connected to the power grid was essential to participating and prospering in a modernized economy.
The only reason rural Americans, or those in Canada as well as other developed countries around the world, ever got connected to power grids was courtesy of governments, which stepped in and stepped up where the private sector refused to go. Progress largely occurred courtesy of public cooperatives as well as government assistance, opening the floodgates to economic growth.
Fast-forward to today, and rural Americans as well as those in Canada — are in a nearly identical situation. Once considered a luxury utility for the cities, high-speed broadband internet has become a critical part of modern life.
In the U.S., some municipalities have even decided to abandon fruitlessly waiting for greedy telecom giants to step up to the plate, and instead invest public dollars to deploy their own infrastructure. Much to the dismay of huge corporations, who rancorously lobbied to create laws barring governments from delivering the service. Isn’t a little competition supposed to be healthy in capitalism, something about ensuring higher quality, lower cost services?
That alone should tell us everything we need to know. It’s almost as though corporations don’t have our best interests at heart, and are primarily concerned and motivated only by the desire to satisfy shareholders.
Meanwhile, our own municipality had an opportunity to invest in our community. Had council approved the project, we would already have largely crawled out of the last century.
Instead, we continue to wait on the private sector, which clearly is in no rush to deliver broadband.
— Ducatel is the Round Up’s editor
