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High-speed Internet on its way to rural areas

BY Laurie Watt, Staff June 23, 2009 20:06

Simcoe County is looking to make rural connections faster, starting in July.

Over the next 12 months, the county will work with Bell Aliant to bring high-speed connections to rural areas.

And for people like Tiny Township Mayor Peggy Breckenridge, it can’t happen soon – or quick – enough.

“I’ve already gotten tons of calls. There’s at least 20 per cent of our area not covered at all and it’s not adequate,” she said.

“I’m a messenger. People are angry. Of the 95 per cent of the county that will be covered, in Tiny, we’re covered 75 to 80 per cent. People are running small businesses and we’re not too pleased.”

One of those is Michael Kulyk, who is considering moving because of the lack of high-speed.

“My business suffers since I am forced to update my home office machines in between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. to avoid my speed being reduced by my satellite provider for using too much bandwidth and I can only update one machine per night, lest I suffer the wrath of the Xplorenet gods,” he said, adding his satellite system goes off-line at least once each day.

“I have to keep a blackberry with me as the many outages of the satellite system due to weather and technical difficulties require me to have a backup email system – so I end up paying even more money so I can communicate with my clients.”

Even Breckenridge experienced those realities earlier this month, as she tried to get the details on a provincial plan that derails the county’s growth plan. As part of a June 4 announcement on the Barrie-Innisfil boundary issue, the Ontario Growth Secretariat released a plan that could sideline the county’s growth plan approved last year.

“My office is in my home and I’m on slow speed. You have to open email and then go onto a website and another. Slow-speed internet complicated it,” she said, as she tried to find out how the announcement changed her township’s growth projections (it reduced them by 2,150).

Simcoe County received $1 million in Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) funding late last year; the plan was to begin upgrading service this spring. Now the plan is to do the upgrades over the next 12 months – to bring 95 per cent of county residents onto higher speed by early 2010.

More information about the project’s progress can be found online at http://ruralconnections.simcoe.ca.

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