Dr. Michael Geist, holder of the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, echoes the concerns of muni advocates across North America this week.Dr. Michael Geist, holder of the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, echoes the concerns of muni advocates across North America this week.
In his high-tech weekly legal column, LawBytes, Geist¬¨‚Ćtakes a swipe at Canada’s reliance on the free market to provide broadband services across that country and issues¬¨‚Ća plea that the Canadian government resurrect legislation that would put more resources behind municipal efforts.¬¨‚Ć
He writes:
Canada’s global broadband ranking has slipped steadily in recent years, as Asian and European countries leapt ahead with faster, more widely distributed high-speed networks.¬¨‚Ć Moreover, last year’s Telecommunications Policy Review Panel concluded that reliance solely on market forces would likely leave hundreds of thousands of Canadians without high-speed Internet access.
In response, Prime Minister Stephen Harper would do well to take the lead by implementing the broadband strategy that languished under the previous Liberal government. 
His concern echos those he expressed last March in an op-ed piece for the Toronto Star.
Click here to read Geist’s recent column, “The Policy Response to the User-Generated Content Boom.”
Posted by Carol Ellison
No comments yet.