Barrett Xplore is a national rural broadband service provider, and 2006 was our first full year of operation, with both our satellite and fixed wireless services in the market.
Our satellite service, launched in conjunction with Telesat, offers a ubiquitous national footprint for broadband, ready now to serve and deliver service anywhere in Canada.
Members of this committee should have in front of them a map outlining the dispersion of our customers across Canada's great geography. Quantum advances in satellite and wireless technology position rural Canada at a historic and critical juncture to benefit from greater choice, competition, and the availability of broadband service. We believe these technologies best fit the characteristics of rural markets and deliver urban-quality broadband to rural Canadians.
Those making inroads into the furthest reaches of Canada are not necessarily the brand names that you might recognize. There are numerous entrepreneurial and innovative new service providers that have recognized the rural broadband opportunity and moved to fill the need.
This is why we support and applaud the Government of Canada as it moves towards greater deregulation in telecommunications. Ultimately, we believe, this means a freer marketplace and more competition, translating into greater choice and better value for rural Canadians.
What can the Government of Canada do to facilitate the deployment of broadband in rural Canada? First, careful scrutiny or diligence to avoid future decisions like Telecom decision CRTC 2006-9, which uses deferral accounts and hundreds of millions of dollars to push the telcos or ILECs to compete with us in rural Canada. In our view, this type of market distortion will, ironically, slow the deployment of rural broadband, discouraging new entrants who already have invested heavily and effectively deliver service today.
Second, processes to award wireless spectrum must take the differential nature of rural Canada into account. Improved access to spectrum for rural providers is vital if your goal is to level the broadband playing field for rural Canadians.
Third and finally, there's an opportunity to learn from, and possibly replicate, Alberta SuperNet, a province-wide Internet backbone network that reaches into the hundreds of communities in rural Alberta. Since mid-2005, this innovative PPP model has encouraged the investment of private capital and the entry of more than 60 service providers delivering broadband to rural Albertans.
On behalf of Barrett Xplore, I thank you for your time and consideration.