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Columnists

How community broadband can deliver faster, cheaper Internet for all Canadians

Photo: Sean MacEntee/flickr

Unreliable service. Slow speeds. Appalling customer mistreatment. And some of the highest prices in the industrialized world. It's no wonder Canadians are fed up with the stranglehold that a handful of giant conglomerates exert over our telecom market.

With so little competition, Big Telecom has long been able to keep prices high without fear of customers jumping ship to a more affordable alternative. But that could be about to change. A landmark ruling from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has thrown the door open for communities across Canada to take their digital future into their own hands.

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Columnists

Is the government about to make the Internet even more expensive for all Canadians?

Photo: Lindsey Turner/flickr

At OpenMedia, we cover a wide range of digital rights issues, and so we've really seen the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly when it comes to policy proposals over the years. And this one's a doozy: Canadian Heritage Minister Melanie Joly is considering adding a new ISP tax to the monthly bills of Canada's Internet subscribers.

This new tax will make Internet access even more expensive, despite the fact that Canadians already pay among the highest prices in the industrialized world for this basic necessity. Indeed, fees are already so high that 44 per cent of low-income households do not have a home Internet connection, leaving vast numbers of Canadians excluded from our digital endowment.

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Redeye

'Storming the Digital Divide' illustrates how PovNet made the Internet accessible

October 20, 2016
| PovNet was born out of a meeting of anti-poverty activists in 1997 who wanted to make the Internet accessible to all. A new comic book tells the story of this unique online resource.
Length: 13:32 minutes (12.39 MB)
Columnists

All Canadians deserve affordable, high-speed Internet. Because it's 2016.

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"It's too expensive." "It's too slow." "I can't get a reliable connection." All common responses from Canadians when you ask what they think about their Internet service. At OpenMedia, not a day goes by without our getting emails, social media messages, and phone calls from Canadians unhappy with the state of their Internet.

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Columnists

Investing in our digital future is critical to strengthening Canada's economy

Like our coverage of digital media? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

"It's the economy, stupid!"

That well-known political aphorism was first coined over 20 years ago by James Carville, a senior adviser to Bill Clinton.

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WINGS

Bridging the age divide in digital technology

September 22, 2015
| Rose Marie Whalley interviews Communications Professor Kim Sawchuk, researching aging and mobile technology, about ways to bridge the age divide in communities.
Length: 29:09 minutes (28.67 MB)
Women learn computer skills. Photo: Spark Creative Ltd/Flickr
| July 28, 2015

Searching for media democracy amid mainstream corporatocracy

Photo: Alex Tse

I cannot remember the last time I watched or listened to a mainstream news outlet and actually felt more informed, more engaged and more like an empowered member of a mass citizenry, instead of feeling cheated, disillusioned and enraged at whose voices were repeated over and over again.

Probably because that has never happened.

Last Friday, Nov 7, kicked off Media Democracy Days (MDD). Founded in 2001, this annual event (now expanded into a weekend) celebrates independent and democratic media in Canada.

embedded_video

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| August 17, 2013
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