Broadband for what? Policy implications of an essential public utility.

by Ricardo Ramirez, Garth Graham, Fred Bigham and Daniel Pellerin

This paper was submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Government Services in mid-2007 in response to a call for papers “to explore and improve our understanding of the broader social and economic development potential of broadband.” The call pointed out that, “Reliable and widely available access to public utilities, such as phone and hydro services, are standard across the province” and posed the question, “Could access to broadband be considered in the same way, that is, as an essential service or a utility? As such, it is important to ask: In the Information Age, is broadband an essential public utility? If so, what are the implications for public policy?”