Canadian Broadband → Re: Why not here?

With 70% or more of our population in urban/suburban areas, who cares about rural?

If I were an indie, I wouldn't be spending my money dropping a load of fiber on Moose Factory, Proton Station, or some hamlet outside Ottawa. I'd be fibering Oakville or Cabbagetown or St. James Town.

You would likely have much more red-tape to deal with when fibering somewhere like Cabbagetown, than say Moosejaw.

Probably correct.
But the payoff in an area of urban density like Cabbagetown is likely an order of magnitude better, or close to it.

That that is the foundational Canadian problem.

Actually it's a problem for rural residents, not so much for urban ones. And it isn't just in Canada - every country has its own set of urban/rural issues.

People in the boonies are almost always behind the curve on most things.....access to more intensive health care that urban centres offer, timely access to emergency treatment, choice in telecommunications, availability of private schools, water and sewage treatment, etc.....

On the other hand, rural/semi-rural/small town living has its own attractions for those who choose to stay there. As one lifestyle example, some people LOVE to drink well/lake water basically as-is and wouldn't trade it for Toronto/Montreal/Oakville etc... tap water at any price. You can, depending on where you live, have a boat 50' from your door for recreation purposes/mental health...less so in a big city, and so on.

In the end it's the individual's own choice to weigh which factors are more important to them in deciding where to live/work/locate a business and deal with any efficiencies/inefficiencies those decisions bring.

Of course, but then this becomes a barrier to access discussion and not a feasibility discussion.

But it is a feasibility discussion, it's not feasible to wire up Moosejaw with Fibre , recoup your costs and get a decent return, compared to Cabbagetown (all red tape aside) .

I think if Moosejaw wanted to wire itself up, it'd be a deal... and would cost less than Cabbagetown, but agreed the financial prospects are *much* better in Cabbagetown

Population density is a farce. ROI is a farce.

»Population density my ass

Bell isn't doing FTTH installs in Toronto (GTA) because they don't want to.

The bean counters are not interested in putting out capital money to roll out FTTH. It's that simple.

Agreed and the financial requirements for rural builds are way too high unless someone has the money and generosity to put up billions of dollars.