Graeme Beckett

Tuesday, June 18
NCF AGM: Board candidacy for Graeme Beckett

Nominated by the NCF Board of Directors

What skills will you contribute to the NCF Board?

So far, I've been contributing as an NCF board member since the year 2000! I've served on number of committees, overseen nine different Executive Directors and been a former President of the National Capital FreeNet! I'm currently acting as Secretary of the Board. I'm the longest serving board member with considerable background knowledge of the organization's financial and contractual considerations and of the various activities the NCF has been involved with. I was a member of the team that initiated our vital cost-saving direct-to-Bell DSL service!

During my time on the NCF board, we've made huge strides in improving our services. When I first joined the Board the NCF only had dial-up service! Today we offer very reliable cable and DSL speed services with speeds as fast as 50 Mb/s on DSL and up to 1024 Mbps with cable. We moved from our cramped former offices at Carleton University to our current larger office on Richmond Road that has provided room for better service and more volunteers, training and importantly, separate and quiet individual rooms to enable development and administration and free parking!

What are the most important functions of NCF for its members?

I believe affordable internet is more than necessary in today's world. Communicating with government, loved ones, banking and finances, work, social communication, shopping, health, school and university. We see virtually every aspect of our lives has moved online. With Covid we saw online access became absolutely essential. I'll help ensure we continue with reasonable pricing and look to new projects and more diverse service offerings that members can benefit from. Fiber access speeds are among the top requested items for members and families with so many bandwidth intensive activities and connected devices. Continuing our Community Access Fund and being a social enterprise rather than just an ISP is a commitment and also to see that NCF increase its economies of scale to help drive down prices for everyone!

Pre-Covid the NCF held a number of popular training sessions on various internet related topics, There's still a fundamental need among new Canadians and those with limited online skills to interact and learn and these will be returning.

Why do you want to be an NCF director?

To share my experience and knowledge. We achieved many of my previous goals. At this time I feel it's critical for NCF to be offering FTTP - which is fiber to the home. This could provide a long-term stable source of revenue while DSL use continues its multi-year decline. There's also NCF's community Wi-Fi network that can be expanded upon and may also become a gateway for other projects and revenue. Community WiFi - National Capital FreeNet (ncf.ca)

In my next term I will continue monitoring developments at our federal CRTC on FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises). There is a growing segment of the population of National Capital Region who have or will have fibre deployed directly to their home. NCF cannot currently provide service to many of them. Fiber to the home is also future proof for the NCF, providing stable revenue.

Additionally if we can make it sustainable, I'd like to see our Community Access Fund extended beyond Ottawa Community Housing to reach out to others. This fund helps provide low cost internet service. I would also like to have the popular training and informational sessions that are hosted by NCF resume.

Ensuring we offer reliable, affordable and up to date internet access and introduce a community awareness initiative and also consider new offerings, be it Fiber speeds, WiFi, VOIP, or IPTV. This can add key momentum to NCF's growth. As we obtain greater economies of scale we drive down our base costs and as a not-for-profit those reduced costs are passed on to our membership, not shareholders.