Internet will cost more expensive

Guy Fournier

Tuesday, 11 July, 2017 05:00

UPDATE
Tuesday, 11 July, 2017 05:00

Look at this article

Saturday, it took four hours for a technician from Videotron (perhaps it was this that of a subcontractor) installs a new underground cable from the pole to the house. He then spent another hour to calibrate the signals of the various modems, set-top boxes and routers that I have to the campaign. 75 km of Montreal, the image of the tv is now at its best and the internet is as fast, if not faster.

While the technician was working at the facility, a scene that I lived in Whitehorse, Yukon, a few years ago, returned to me in memory. I was causing then with an Inuit woman who lives in Tuktoyuktuk. This village with a funny name, located in the Inuvik region, in the borders of the Territories of the North-West, has over 1,000 inhabitants. Whether he has any fame, it is that the Molson Brewery has shot commercials in 1995 and we recorded the sequences of the docu-reality Le convoi de l extreme, broadcast on Canal D.

In the early fifties, the woman complaining about the fact that his son was downloading from time to time a feature-length film, thereby blocking any other internet communication. When I asked him how long he needed to download a movie, she replied : “five to seven days ! “

It IS the SAME IN IQUALUIT

I was told recently that it takes the same time if you live in Iqualuit. In these remote places, the internet is not the end of his computer or his tablet. It should be “the call” as we call someone on the phone. Most of my readers have probably forgotten that this is what he had to do 20 years ago.

Of the citizens of the great crown of Montréal and of several villages in Quebec must continue to rely to an hour or more to download a film. For them, no issue to watch anything streaming on their tv or on their computer.

Last December, the CRTC ruled that internet broadband (the one that, in theory, could allow us to download 50 megabytes per second and upload at 10 Mb) is now an essential service. As in the past the phone.

THE BARE MINIMUM

We’re just about all away from these speeds ideal. Most of us have to settle for 5 Mb, and 1 Mb for download and upload. It is only the bare minimum on which all Canadians will have to rely by the end of 2019. To allow suppliers to build the necessary infrastructure, the CRTC has created a special fund of $ 750 million in which they have to pay a little more than 0.5 % of their income.

Whether we like it or not, our internet bill will increase each year, probably from $ 1 to $ 2 per month, because it is in our pocket that feeds this special fund. For its part, the federal government will disburse $ 500 million of our tax dollars over five years to ensure that all Canadians have access to a bandwidth that is powerful enough to take advantage of the benefits of the digital age.

With a little luck, my friendly questioner of Toktoyuktuk will then be able to send a few emails, check the web site of the Hudson Bay or download a recipe of oil of a whale, even if his son decides, on the same day, to download an old blockbuster from Hollywood.

TÉLÉPENSÉE OF THE DAY

Champion auto racer, Jacques Villeneuve became champion rambling.