Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Momentum building for AWS to fund broadband
Last month, in our opening comments at The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit, Michael Sone and I called for the government to take some of the more than $2B windfall from the AWS spectrum auction to invest in initiatives to stimulate demand for broadband from under-serviced segments.At the time, we also suggested a new approach to distributing the funds, in order to avoid picking winners by subsidizing one service provider over another. Since then, a number of other voices have joined our call for the proceeds from the AWS auction to be used for a new national broadband program.
Michael Geist wrote about it in his column.
Janet Yale, Michael Jannigan and I wrote an OpEd in last week's Financial Post.
Now, Peter Nowak at the CBC reports that the Liberals and NDP have joined the chorus.
Anyone else want to sing along?
Ironically, I noticed that Industry Canada's broadband website is scheduled to be closed in two weeks.
Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit, AWS, broadband
Posted by Mark Goldberg @ 7/16/2008 06:44:00 AM 
Comments:
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This is a bad idea. And the fact that the telcos are for it just underscores who will benefit most. The government should ignore the pleadings of self interested parties and take the money to pay down the debt or to reduce taxes.
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Posted by 
Steve Stinson : 9:47 AM, July 16, 2008
Steve Stinson : 9:47 AM, July 16, 2008 << Home
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