Published on March 1, 2016 | by Taylor Clysdale Photography by Taylor Clysdale

Lower Internet costs could benefit students

Low-cost high-speed Internet options may be coming to Canada, and these options could directly benefit students.

In April the CRTC, Canada’s telecom regulator, will consider a proposal from the Affordable Access Coalition (AAC) to force Canadian telecoms to introduce low-cost Internet options for Canadians.

Geoff White, legal council to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, which is a member of the AAC, said that the average Canadian household pays $181 a month for Internet, which is up 13 per cent from last year.

White said part of the issue is that Internet is considered a luxury and when it should be an essential service.

He also said that an essential service should take up no more than four to six per cent of a household’s monthly income.

The cheapest plans Rogers and Bell, two of Canada’s largest Internet providers, offer are $24.99 and $64.95 a month, respectively.

White said that the Internet has become essential for work, school, finding a job and interacting with government services.

“These are all vital services and you need an Internet connection to get by,” he noted.

Camercon Redsell-Montgomerie is the coordinator of Humber College’s math centre and said calling it an essential service may not fix the problem.

“The only problem with that is that they define phone access as a necessity,” and he said even that isn’t cheap.

Redsell-Montgomerie, who sees students using the Internet on a daily basis, said that he thinks Internet should be included as a part of our taxes.

He said that for students “it’s a huge cost, they’re paying $50 to $60 a month for a phone plan, they’re paying $70 to $80 a month for an Internet plan and then about $30 to $40 a month for food.”

Jennifer Easter, library liaison and acting library manager of the University of Guelph-Humber, agreed. Easter helps students access research materials for assignments and a lot of those materials are available online.

She said that “when we purchase something online it means there’s just more access. So instead of one copy of a book a student can use one at a time we’ve got e-journals and e-books that multiple students can access at once.”

She added that if students don’t have access to that information at home, having to come to school could make things harder.

“If they could only do their work [at school] I could imagine that would create a bit of a problem for them in that they would have to arrange to spend more time here,” said Easter.

She also said that might limit their time to do other things, such as study or work.

Easter added that some students don’t want to carry heavy books everywhere and many times those materials come from off-site and can time being delivered.

Frank Jamieson, coordinator of Humber College’s writing centre, said that Internet access isn’t just about accessing research.

Humber uses Blackboard software, which students use to communicate with students, access a teacher’s materials and submit assignments.

“Students constantly will use the Internet to interact with professors with Blackboard,” he said, adding that students who can’t access Blackboard, can’t submit some assignments.

The CRTC meeting is scheduled for April 11, 2016.

About the Author

Taylor Clysdale is a passionate writer, poet, and gamer whose grand aspirations include becoming an investigative journalist. Favorite movies include Pulp Fiction and Alien.