Changing Broadband Needs in Pandemic-Era Cities

By Jessie Feller Hahn, Executive Director, Meeting of the Minds

Jessie Feller Hahn is the Executive Director of Meeting of the Minds where she is responsible for identifying global urban sustainability, innovation, technology best practices and thought leadership, developing platforms for city leaders to share lessons learned, and building alliances and partnerships across and within sectors.

“For a long time we’ve talked about how everybody’s moving to cities […] but I think the pandemic is making people rethink that a little bit if they can get broadband in a rural community.” – Rob McCann, Founder, Clearcable

I spoke last week with with Rob McCann, the Founder of Clearcable, an Ontario-based supplier of broadband connectivity. I discussed how the pandemic and stay-at-home orders have impacted the supply and demand of broadband among their clients throughout North America. My key take-aways from this discussion:

  1. Clearcable saw its broadband usage jump 25% immediately following the stay-at-home orders in March. His explanation of how Clearcable was able to absorb this instant demand spike is a clear example of the rewards of long-term infrastructure planning.
  2. I was intrigued by his explanation of how cities can derisk the economics of rural broadband connectivity by entering the market as Open Access networks or fully competitive ISPs.
  3. Rob believes the pandemic and work-from-home options have slowed urban migration trends and, indeed, presented broadband connectivity as an antidote to the rural-urban migration that has characterized so much of the discussion around urban sustainability over the last 20 years. Do you agree or disagree? Please add your comments below.

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