Session 4: Internet Policies and Protecting the Interests of End-Users This session will examine a number of public policy issues being debated in Canada and their impact on the interests of end-users, including: Net neutrality and the proposal of the Quebec government to require Internet service providers to block certain online gaming websites The tension between Internet openness / the protection of privacy and national security / law enforcement Broadband access as a basic service The roles of competition and regulation in the provision of Internet access Panelists will include: Moderator: Dr. Sam Lanfranco, ISCC Director Timothy Denton, Principal at the Windermere Group and Chair of ISCC Jeremy Depow, Executive Director of Canada’s Digital Policy Forum Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law and Law Professor at the University of Ottawa Geoffrey White, Counsel, Public Interest Advocacy Centre Christian Tacit, Founder of Tacit Law and Vice-Chair and Corporate Secretary of ISCC

1. What’s the internet for?
Who’s the internet for?
Who’s the internet debate for?
Geoff White, Barrister & Solicitor
For the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

2. What’s the internet for?
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3. What’s the internet for?
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4. What’s the internet for?
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5. What’s the internet for?
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6. What’s the internet for?
4 service providers’ views (emphasis added)
1. "Email and Web-browsing (and the plethora of activities and
socio-economic contributions that can be achieved through web
browsing and email) are the services most necessary to
meaningfully participate in the digital economy. … We submit
that although of interest from an entertainment perspective,
high bandwidth applications and services are not necessary to
participate in the digital economy."
2. “[O]nly wireline voice is an essential service and that access to
Digital Economy Broadband Services is important, but not
essential, for Canadians”
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7. What’s the internet for?
4 service providers’ views (emphasis added)
3. “A number of the popular Internet activities […] are most accurately
characterized as satisfying the recreational and entertainment wants of
Canadians rather than representing a basic use of the Internet that meets
their basic telecommunications needs to actively engage in the digital
economy. For example, downloading and streaming movies, television
programming and music certainly allow individuals to be entertained
through online services, but these do not rise to the level of being essential
to the economic or social welfare of Canadians.”
4. “[W]hat Canadians expect they should be able to use the internet for would
be much more expansive than what should be considered a basic service as
a government supported policy.”
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8. Who is the internet for?
• ISCC: “The Internet is for Everyone”
• Question: Is it?
– Legally? UN says it’s a human right
– Regulatory? Not if dial-up access remains the “basic”
standard?
– Practically? See testimonials.
• Answer: The internet is not currently for everyone
– Access to broadband has two components: availability
and affordability.
– Not everyone can access essential services, or sufficient speeds.
– #’s of people either don’t have access, or sufficient access, or
affordability.
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9. Who’s the internet for?
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10. Who’s the internet for?
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11. Who’s the internet for?
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12. Who’s the internet for?
• 80% of Canadians indicate that broadband
Internet service at home is essential, to
varying degrees, with 37% responding that it
is “absolutely essential.”
• 84% of Canadians believe that all Canadians
should have access to broadband Internet
service at home no matter where they live in
Canada, compared to only 15% who do not.
9/24/2015 12Geoff White | For PIAC

13. What’s the “basic” level of internet access
(CRTC Consultation 2015-134)
• “50-80” rule
• considers a telecommunications service as
“basic” for the purposes of determining required
universal service if 50% of the population
subscribes to a service, and 80% of those
subscribers do so at given speed.
• E.g., if 50% of Canadians subscribed to
broadband Internet service, & 80% of those did
so at 5 Mbps*, then that is considered, legally,
“basic” service. (*using 2013 data)
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14. Basic telecommunications service
(CRTC Consultation 2015-134)
• Do we even need to debate whether
broadband access is essential?
• Does it matter if many people use broadband
internet for ‘trivial’ matters?
• How is socializing online different from
socializing on the telephone?
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15. The AAC’s key recommendations
• “Basic” should mean “capability to connect via
high speed data transmission (“broadband”,
currently 5-10 Mbps, expected to be 25 Mbps by
2020) to the Internet “
• Update “basic” definition annually
• Implement “Affordability Funding Mechanism”
– $11 monthly subsidy to eligible households
(“baseline” case)
– $22 / month under “ambitious” case
• Implement “Broadband Deployment Funding
Mechanism”
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16. The AAC’s key recommendations
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17. The AAC’s key recommendations
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18. Who should get to debate these issues?
• Academics?
• Activists?
• Advocates?
• Consultants?
• Engineers?
• Individuals?
• Lawyers?
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19. Who gets to debate these issues?
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20. Who gets to debate these issues?
• Answer: Everyone
– CRTC has open processes, is engaged in significant
outreach
– Part I process allows interested persons to bring
forth any matter, and allow interested persons to
intervene.
– Social media enabling broader engagement
• Issue is relevance and weight given to
evidence
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21. Thank you
gwhite@piac.ca
613-612-1190
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