{"id":1950,"date":"2016-12-24T15:25:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-24T15:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.com\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2016-12-24T15:25:58","modified_gmt":"2016-12-24T15:25:58","slug":"canada-regulator-declares-high-speed-internet-essential-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/2016\/12\/24\/canada-regulator-declares-high-speed-internet-essential-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada regulator declares high-speed internet an essential service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s telecommunications regulator on Wednesday declared access to high-speed internet an essential service that must be available to all, including rural and remote areas of the world\u2019s second-largest nation by land mass.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said a new Can$750 million fund would be created to reach the goal of speeds of at least 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, telecoms were ordered to provide it with their investment plans within six months to help meet this objective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccess to broadband internet service is vital and a basic telecommunication service all Canadians are entitled to receive,\u201d said CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHigh quality and reliable digital connectivity is essential for the quality of life of Canadians and Canada\u2019s economic prosperity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Most of Canada\u2019s 12 million households and one million businesses already have broadband access to the internet.<\/p>\n<p>But about 18 percent are underserved by dial-up or other low-speed access, which hinders their ability \u201cto participate in the digital economy,\u201d Blais said.<\/p>\n<p>Fast internet access is increasingly needed to access services such as health care, education, and banking, as well as shopping, entertainment, and social networking.<\/p>\n<p>The CRTC set out in its decision that 90 percent of Canadian homes and businesses must have access to high speed internet by the end of 2021 and the remaining 10 percent within 10-15 years.\u2014AFP<\/p>\n<p>Image: YouTube<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s telecommunications regulator on Wednesday declared access to high-speed internet an essential service that must be available to all, including rural and remote areas of the world\u2019s second-largest nation by land mass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kt10.khaleejtimes.ae\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}