Nova Scotia broadband project still trying to connect 800 rural addresses, three years on

The completion of a $75 million broadband project in Nova Scotia has been delayed by nearly three years due to the province’s rugged seacoast terrain. According to Nova Scotia’s Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism, the province’s landscape is making the project’s completion more difficult than initially expected. The $75 million provincial project, which involves Bragg Communications Inc. subsidiary Eastlink and Cape Breton, N.S.-based Seaside Communications, was supposed to be completed by Dec. 31, 2009. As of this month, 800 rural Nova Scotia residents are still waiting for high-speed Internet connections, prompting the provincial government to withhold $550,000 in payments to Eastlink. The department said on its website that the total $75 million project has been financed by a $41.4 million contribution from contracted service providers, $19.6 million from the provincial government and $14.5 million from the federal government. Eastlink spokeswoman Jill Laing told The Wire Report in a phone interview that, under the project plan, the company is responsible for bringing broadband service to eight Nova Scotia counties, including Lunenburg, Queens, Shelburne, Yarmouth, Digby, Annapolis, Kings and Hants. Seaside will roll out broadband services to the counties of Cumberland, Colhester, Guysborough, Antigonish, Pictou and the island of Cape Breton. The company will also provide service to the municipality of Halifax. OmniGlobe Networks Inc. had signed a contract to serve Halifax in 2008, but its part of the project was taken over by Seaside when it went into receivership in 2011. “We’ve connected over 6,400 customers so far,” Laing said. “We do have a pretty large customer base and continue to connect customers every day.” She added in an emailed statement that the rural broadband project has been more challenging than anyone anticipated. Laing said only the most difficult connections in the project remain. “There are pockets across the eight counties that are located in some of the more difficult to reach areas,” she said. “Some connections have not been made because of geographic challenges, such as elevation and technology issues that make it difficult to establish a signal due to distance or a blockage like a mountain or a valley.” Laing said that the issues are not easily to resolve and the project “will take more time.” She added that Eastlink has invested more than $25 million in the provincial broadband project. Toby Koffman, a spokesman for Department of Economic and Rural Development, said in an emailed statement that, despite the challenges, the broadband project has been “an overwhelming success.” Koffman said that when the project was launched in 2007, it sought to make broadband available to 200,000 unserved Nova Scotia individuals by connecting 93,500 civic addresses, 213 schools and 5,600 businesses. “Today tens of thousands of connections have been made, and the province has a tremendous asset that individuals and businesses can build on,” he said. Koffman said that the province has a contract with each service provider, and the $550,000 withheld from Eastlink is part of the project contracts. “As part of those contracts, holdbacks are in place to ensure that the companies complete their obligations, and continue to provide broadband access to anyone who wants it,” he said in the email. The department acknowledged that 800 civic addresses are waiting for broadband service. “We understand that this continues to be a frustrating process for those seeking service,” Koffman said. Technical limitations like a lack of a power supply or accessible roads have added to the project’s complications, he said. “We remain confident that a solution will be determined,” he said. Eastlink and the Department of Economic and Rural Development could not say when all broadband connections would be completed. Laing said Eastlink continues to cooperate with the government. “To that end, we continue to investigate a variety of alternate solutions for these potential customers who live in the hard-to-serve pockets,” she wrote by email. Seaside did not respond a request for comment by deadline. dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Nova Scotia broadband project still trying to connect 800 rural addresses, three years on

News | 04/27/2012 9:49 pm EDT

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