A pool of funding aimed at bridging the gap between rural and urban Internet service might be a boon for the North SA国际影视传媒� even more so for the very reason national Internet advocacy groups have been panning it.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced the details of its $750-million Broadband Fund on Sept. 27.

SA国际影视传媒淭he CRTC kind of turned (the traditional broadband project funding model) on its head,SA国际影视传媒� says Mark Buell, a former Inuvik community development officer whoSA国际影视传媒檚 now the Internet SocietySA国际影视传媒檚 regional bureau director for North America.

While an exact date hasnSA国际影视传媒檛 been set, in the next few months people and groups will be able to apply for money to fund projects that help the CRTC deliver Internet speeds of at least 25 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads.

These speeds are half of what it originally required, which spurred Internet advocacy organizations such as OpenMedia and the Canadian Internet Registration Authority to issue statements decrying it compromising on higher-speed access, but that might make it easier for Northerners to enter the game, according to Buell.

He says the Broadband FundSA国际影视传媒檚 funding model will grant money to projects on their merit and the needs of the people the projects are serving, rather than previous models that fund projects that hook up the most amount of people for the least amount of money SA国际影视传媒� which doesnSA国际影视传媒檛 work for the sparsely-populated North.

SA国际影视传媒淲hat that could do is open up funding for community networks and for communities to come together and deploy networks as a community as opposed to waiting for a telecommunications company to come in and deploy the networks for them.SA国际影视传媒�

He says special consideration will be given to projects that affect Indigenous communities and that consultation is required for projects that affect Indigenous communities.

SA国际影视传媒淭here may be a priority for communities in the North that have a majority Indigenous population,SA国际影视传媒� he said.

The Internet Society is co-hosting, with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Indigenous Connectivity Summit in Inuvik this week. A major theme of the event is community networks SA国际影视传媒� communications infrastructure built, managed and used by local communities.

Buell says the benefits of these networks are they can be reliable, are locally managed and serviced and they provide competition which he says may eventually help produce higher speeds.

While projects like these are not yet underway in the North, theySA国际影视传媒檝e been successful elsewhere, such as Argentina and Mexico.

Buell says the NorthSA国际影视传媒檚 Internet service is improving, with communities throughout the Mackenzie Valley now hooked up to fibre optic Internet and with a planned project to link that line at Inuvik with one coming up the Dempster Highway from the Yukon.

He says this success is part of the reason the Internet Society looked to Inuvik to host this summit.