Welcome to the 1980's Tories!
Wow.
Edgy.
Stephen McDougall in The Record, Sherbrooke, Quebec's English newspaper, writes this morning that at a press conference last week at a community center in Adstock, a hamlet of2,800 just east of Thetford Mines, our beloved Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government will spend $225 million over three years to help finance high speed Internet upgrade projects. He said the funding would generate jobs and allow rural and remote communities in Canada to have better computer access to more public and private services.
This is all nice, don't get me wrong, but the fact is that high speed is available for people living in the sticks, it just costs more. Their is a price to be paid for living in paradise, eh?
Perhaps, just perhaps, Mr. Harper is using this issue to pander to rural residents and secure their votes and his future.
Shocking.
WFDS
Let's not forget that they're actually approaching the situation with their (usually wrong and ill-informed) approach. My guess from the press release is that they will install hard-lines with public money and then give them to private broadcasters / Bell / Rogers (although that's just an informed guess and not fact yet).
ReplyDeleteYou're right: nothing like this should come for free, but if it does, have a plan beyond just buying votes.
The future for rural areas is actually with wireless. This way, no individual company can own the lines and monopolize service to rural subscribers (like they're so good at doing).
But then, we won't have any wireless technology and infrastructure to speak of since all of our wireless assets will be sold to Ericsson in the coming weeks following the Nortel bankruptcy, won't they?
Like I said, you actually need a plan that goes beyond partisan politics.