Adam Bramburger
Beaver Staff
Lennox and Addington County is poised to make major investments over the next two years to improve broadband communications technology as part of the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN).
Last Wednesday, council voted to approve a $40,000 expenditure for its unallocated surplus funding from last year to help EORN complete a study of service gaps expected to cost in excess of $400,000. By next January, it could be asked to spend between $414,899 and $627,899 to address cellular and mobile gaps in the region.
EORN co-lead Jim Pine and stakeholder relations officer Lisa Severson appeared before council to speak about what the project has done to date for communications infrastructure and where it is heading.
Pine reminded councillors that EORN started in 2010 with a goal of providing high-speed Internet services to as many people in eastern Ontario as possible. With the project complete and bills paid by 2015, some 89 per cent of users had access to speeds of 10 megabits per second, and another nine per cent received speeds from 1.5-9 Mbps. The key to that project, Pine said, was an investment in a backbone network of about 5,500-plus kilometres of fibre-optic cable with over 160 off-shoots connected to it.
In total, the project represented over $175 million in public-private investment and provided a return on investment across the region of $15 for every dollar of public money spent.
As part of the project, EORN also brought high-speed service to a host of business parks across the region.
The private sector continues to invest to add upon that infrastructure with new fibre and technology.
“It’s really the key to the future of connectivity in this region and we have this in place now,” Pine said. “We passed that goal in terms of coverage, but we acknowledge right up front there are still gaps and still challenges for people to get connected. In your county, like mine (Hastings), particularly in the north and central parts there were real challenges to the first project. Some of those, we’re trying to solve now.”
One of the areas EORN felt it had to address was coverage gaps for cellphone and mobile service.
Research has shown that nearly one-sixth of eastern Ontario is a dead zone for cellular devices and about 40 per cent of the region does not have capacity to support large groups of users in one location or allow users to multi-task and use other functionality of the devices beyond listening to a phone call at once.
After conducting engineering and economic studies about the problem, EORN and its parent organization, the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus (EOWC) proposed a $213-million public-private project to improve connectivity across the region. Most of the cost will address the current gap, while there is also an allocation of 35 per cent of the total fund for future capacity. About five per cent of the funding will go to management of the project.
“We’ve done a lot of work, we’ve done the economic analysis and we believe this will create about 3,000 jobs as well as improve public safety,” Pine said. “It’s no surprise to you, of course, but there’s a major hole up Hwy 41. Coming up the highway, you can’t make a cellphone 9-1-1 call. We want to fix that.”
The EOWC voted to make next phase of EORN it’s top priority this year for economic development. It has lobbied all three major provincial political parties for support and recently, in the provincial budget, $70 million was allocated for the project as part of an overall $500 million — pending the election result. Pine indicated EORN is confident that opposition MPPs and candidates will offer support.
The EORN team hopes the federal government will match that $70-million contribution. Another $61 million will be sought from private partners, while the participating municipalities will be on the hook for $10.1 million. If just the 13 members of EOWC participate, Lennox and Addington’s share will be around $627,899. The lower share comes into play if the region’s 10 separated municipalities (represented by the Eastern Ontario Mayor’s Caucus) also contribute — and Pine is believes there will be support.
The share by municipality is broken down with a weighted formula with 20 per cent calculated by geographic area, 40 per cent by population, and 40 per cent by property assessment.
For every dollar municipal governments like Lennox and Addington’s commit, an estimated $21 will be contributed by upper levels and the private sector. Equipment will be a major focus of the project, which could start by summer 2019.
“There’s lots of new builds we need to put in. There will be new towers. We’ll use existing locations and upgrade those locations. It will be a big effort in terms of new infrastructure, but we can certainly do it,” Pine said.
Pine said there’s hope the cellular improvements will allow the region to be prepared to implement faster 5G technology sooner.
Councillor Ric Bresee questioned how long it would take for that 5G technology, which is anticipated to operate in a narrower range around communications towers, to less dense rural areas. Pine said he hoped to see the whole region benefit.
“Our objective is to make sure we can go as far as we can for rural areas as well as the 401 corridor. If it is not ready for us, we want to know what we have to do to be ready… Whatever we do, we want to make sure it supports it.”
Councillor John Wise had a more practical concern. He noted that her partner decided she wanted to switch from a landline to a cellphone, but living in Stone Mills, she’s found that she only receives the services she pays for about a third of the time. He wondered what specifically would happen on the ground to ensure that she would see the required improvements.
Pine explained there isn’t significant capacity, so infrastructure is required.
“Our objective in our business plan is wherever there is a travelled road, you will be connected. It’s very ambitious but — we think — certainly doable.”
After explaining the cellular gap project, Pine shifted to his more immediate ask of $40,000. He explained that the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) determined late in 2016 that Canada should define high-speed communications with speeds of 50 Mbps for file downloads and 10 Mbps for file uploads by 2021. EORN proposes studies to determine what it would take to ensure wired and wireless broadband in the region reaches or exceeds the standard. He said it must be a priority in a competitive environment.
“In Quebec and the northeastern United States, there’s a big push for improving capacities and increasing speeds. Quebec is spending about a billion to get to 100 down and 30 up. Everybody is doing these same sorts of things. Business are going to go to where they can get higher capacities.”
After hearing from Stephen Fox, the County’s director of financial and physical services, that the municipality could handle the investment through its unallocated surplus funds, councillor Gord Schermerhorn successfully moved the money be spent.
“It’s the wave of the future and I think we have to be ready for that.”