Rural broadband and the national interest

I have spent much of my career studying telecommunications systems across countries, including in Sweden, where I have been based most of my life. Canada is roughly 20 times Sweden’s size with less than four times its population, and more than twice the size of the European Union with less than one-tenth of its population. A mobile signal on a rural highway, a fibre connection reaching a northern community, a student joining class from a remote region, or a health worker consulting a specialist across distance is not only possible but expected in Canada. It is a remarkable achievement.

That observation should matter to the current government’s nation-building agenda and national interest. Canada’s next generation of infrastructure will include ports, power, housing and transportation corridors. It should also include the digital networks that allow a country of continental scale to function as one economy.

Canada has made strong progress where the economics are hardest. By the end of 2024, 86.1 per cent of rural households had access to 50/10 Mbps unlimited broadband, while 4G/LTE networks reached 97.6 per cent of rural Canadians. Canada also has the second-highest gigabit coverage in the G7. With terrestrial builds continuing and LEO satellite capacity now part of the federal toolkit, the access challenge is narrowing. These gains reflect unusual investment demands: Canada has the G7’s second-highest telecom investment per capita, with operators reinvesting roughly 20 cents of every revenue dollar into networks.

With substantial progress on rural and remote broadband access, the policy question now changes. The hardest places to connect are often the most dependent on digital connections: some lack all-season roads, regular air service and nearby hospitals, schools or emergency responders. Many are also highly exposed to floods, fires, severe storms, and power failures. In those circumstances, connectivity is public-good infrastructure, supporting safety, care, education, emergency response and community resilience. It requires partnership between governments and network operators where social value exceeds stand-alone commercial returns.

The next phase for the very remote rural broadband policy should begin with three priorities.

First, create a dedicated rural resilience funding stream across federal and provincial broadband programs. It should support public-good investment and local business cases often cannot carry alone: diverse routes, redundant transport, strategic mobile corridors, emergency restoration, and the incremental costs of new reliability standards. Existing programs, including the CRTC Broadband Fund, should align with this objective.

Second, reform spectrum policy to be a tool for nation-building policy. Spectrum underpins rural wireless, fixed wireless access, 5G, satellite-integrated networks and emergency connectivity. Historically, Canadian spectrum prices were among the highest in the world. ISED’s recent move toward spectrum caps and away from set-asides was an important improvement for cost efficiency and rapid deployment. Future auctions for mid-band releases should build on that model, coupled with suitable deployment obligations applied equally to all carriers. Unused spectrum should be made available through alternative licensing mechanisms where appropriate, so it can serve communities rather than sit idle.

Third, treat northern and remote connectivity as strategic infrastructure. Canada should identify priority digital corridors where connectivity supports sovereignty, public safety, Indigenous participation and economic development, then align federal, provincial and territorial programs behind them. The Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link offers a useful precedent: it links northern communities, supports public services, strengthens the Inuvik Satellite Station, enables remote-sensing research and improves the digital foundation for Arctic presence. Future corridors should support emergency response, telehealth, defence readiness, and secure communications.

Canada’s rural broadband achievement is remarkable. The next task is to make that platform resilient in emergencies, supportive of northern sovereignty, dependable for public services, and ready for AI-era opportunities. In a country defined by distance, rural broadband is central for nation-building, cohesion and national interest.

Erik Bohlin is an expert in telecommunications policy, an inter-disciplinary topic concerned with the impact of digitalization in the economy and society. Bohlin holds the Ivey Chair in Telecommunication Economics, Policy and Regulation at Ivey Business School.

The Hill Times