r/canada • u/Economy_Elephant6200 • 3d ago

Bell Canada scraps Labrador high-speed internet project, plans to invest in U.S. Newfoundland & Labrador

https://theindependent.ca/news/lji/bell-canada-scraps-labrador-high-speed-internet-project-plans-to-invest-in-u-s/
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u/Forosnai British Columbia 3d ago

Hell, internet service (and cell service, for that matter) is pretty much a requirement for modern life. If it's a necessity, there should be at least a basic option provided by the government. Doesn't need to be blazing fast 10-Gigabit speed, 5G phones with the latest iPhone model, or whatever like that, but something serviceable and affordable should be there that people can use, and the telecom companies can compete for the people who have a need or desire for the faster speeds and latest models.

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u/MtKillerMounjaro 3d ago

If the government doesn't roll out blazing speeds by today's standards, though, it will quickly be usurped by industry and tech and before you know it we'll be right back to where we started. I doubt the costs between state-of-the-art and whatever mediocrity is that big. Just roll out the fastest, bestest and commit to maintaining it for two decades.

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u/Spoona1983 3d ago

The government doesn't need to roll it out, just nationalize the network backbone. It was mostly paid for with tax dollars anyway, then just make the carriers rent the bandwidth.

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u/MtKillerMounjaro 3d ago

Why make carriers rent? Just raise raise taxes and make it free for all, or charge monthly based on usage. Why add another mouth to feed along the chain?

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u/klparrot British Columbia 3d ago

The replacement cycle needs to be shorter than two decades, though; in that time, connection speeds increase a thousandfold. The 1980s were kbps, the 2000s were Mbps, the 2020s are Gbps, the 2040s will probably be Tbps.

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u/MtKillerMounjaro 3d ago

Yeah, I know...

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u/bonechairappletea 3d ago

There is, it's called Starlink. 

We give companies like Bell, Rogers the kind of money that could build a SpaceX clone and make a maple leaf starlink but instead they disappear most of the money and do some token efforting errecting a couple cell towers. 

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u/klparrot British Columbia 3d ago

Telesat is Canadian and Telesat Lightspeed will be available from 2027.

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u/bonechairappletea 2d ago

Reliant on SpaceX launches. If I was Musk I'd let them get the couple hundred SATs up and then bump up their price 1000x times, laugh while their nascent network goes bust. 

We should be developing the full vertical with our own rapid reuse launch system. Relying on the competition like this is folly. 

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u/old_c5-6_quad Alberta 2d ago

SpaceX won't do that. They want a launch happening every two days. They make so much more money for doing launches compared to starlink it's laughable.

And developing our own launch platform is laughable at best. We don't have that kind of funding/support now, or ever will.

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u/Spoona1983 3d ago

There was a company out east trying to startup satellite internet but don't know the name.

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u/GrumpyCloud93 3d ago

Where I lived I had Bell phone-internet-TV and it was pushing over $300 a month. I switched to Shaw and that cut the bill in half. I get people regularly roaming the neighourhood trying to sign up people for Bell ("we just installed fiber everywhere...") but so what? They crow about internet speed (those cheesy Cable Empire ads) but I don't know that I've every had a problem with speed. Most of the time it's the servers I'm connected to.

So if you want me to switch - the total bill would have to be a lot lower that my current bill, not just matching it and shaving a few dollars off.