Broadband issues plague County residents, but what can be done about it?

Residents that live within Woodlands County would understand better than most what it’s like to deal with broadband issues. At a recent Economic Development Committee (EDC) meeting, Economic Development Officer Bert Roach laid it all out. “We have had the broadband and connectivity as kind of an endemic problem within not just Woodlands County, but rural Alberta, and it has probably been going on for twenty years now. We’ve seen a number of provincial and federal programs to help address things, and we have several grant windows opening at the beginning of the year.”

He said that the provincial government announced funding of $150 million but said it was a “drop in the bucket” according to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) they had spoken with. He said that the funding doesn’t have parameters on how people can apply for it or how it will be awarded. “We’re still waiting for a bit of info on that from the province.”

In June 2021, a REDA Broadband Study completed years ago received an update by the two experts who originally completed it. They recently presented the update to the Barrhead BSN meeting, and Roach provided their presentation. “The final two slides break down what other communities have done. Some have built an entire network themselves that is municipally-owned and operated and controlled and built out like a utility. Some have P3 partnerships, and some have opted to do financing agreements. The lack of a provincial policy on fixing the broadband gaps to provide fibre to the home (makes it) a patchwork quilt. Communities and areas have gone and done their own thing,” explained Roach.

Councillor Alan Deane said his comment would likely verge on cynicism. “The for-profit ISPs are only going to do it if they make a profit. The only way to make this happen is (that) our municipality has to do it. I can remember twelve years ago. Woodlands County paid a consultant who was happy to come out and conduct a consultation. They came up with a plan that we were going to enact, to build five 200 foot towers, strategically located, and then a series of small towers to hit the dark spots. It didn’t happen.”

Patricia MacNeil agreed. “From what I understand, people seem to be doing fairly well with Starlink, at least having better success with some of the County areas. There’s an initial cost for Starlink of $600 and some dollars. Is there any grant funding available to have that given to residents? I’m thinking of seniors on fixed incomes or young families. Maybe they can afford the monthly payment but not the extra $600 installation fee.”

Roach said he wasn’t aware of anything in the existing open grants. He said the federal government money is only granted to ISPs to upgrade their networks. “That might be a more local program to look at some kind of a subsidy from the municipality.”

Councillor Peter Kuelken said the problem stems partially from the initial assessment of who had coverage and who didn’t. “I think what they are doing now is actually putting that information, that we didn’t have six or eight years, and putting that out to the federal government and provincial government and saying this is something essential to all of us and rural is being denied. I think there is some traction there.”

One of the asks from Woodlands County is for residents to conduct speed tests by visiting https://performance.cira.ca/. Data collected will be used by the Government of Canada to determine the need for increased service. Member Crystal Wood asked if the municipality could access the results of citizens testing their broadband. Roach said that yes, they could. Wood then wondered if they could set up a door-to-door census to get firmer numbers on access.

Councillor Bruce Prestidge said he wanted to see more advertising on the speed test shared with residents. “I think we should make our residents aware that this is important and that they should be doing this.” MacNeil agreed on the door-to-door type of info gathering. “Lots of people don’t have any access at all. That’s something that could be captured in a regional study. (If) there’s no way of logging on then you can say, this property as zero access.”

Deane said that he and his wife have a home on Shuswap Lake and are at the end of a road in a remote, rugged area. “They brought fibre in there. It cost us $200 to connect. How does that happen there, and we cant get this done?” Roach went back to the original comment he made at the start, which was that the conversation around broadband is a “confusing and wide-ranging topic” with lots of mitigating factors.

Roach explained that fibre broadband is considered the best result for access and explained why the upgrade is slow going. “The unfortunate thing is that usually fibre is run underground, so there is a significant cost in putting it in, and you have to connect back to the point of access. Most internet within the County is done with Wi-Fi.” He said that Telus is upgrading their network to 5G, which would increase capacity.

“Ideally, we would want to find someone willing to bring fibre to every home within the County. If we can have that happen, then from the internet of things to gaming, to people working from home to any of the medical and security stuff that you can imagine, it should all be able to accommodate.” Deane asked how feasible it would be to find someone to do it. Roach said he was remaining optimistic.

Prestidge said the topic reminded him of the ’60s and early ’70s when very few rural homes had telephones. “You couldn’t phone for an ambulance or anything until the Alberta government mandated that every resident in the province would get a telephone. They plowed cable in for fifteen years to get to every house, but it was a provincial-funded project, and to me, that’s what has to happen for broadband.” 

The committee accepted the report as information and encouraged Council to discuss the topic during their Strategic Planning Session in the new year.