Ontario communities look at repurposing broadcast towers for mobile services

Six Ontario communities are looking for partnerships with wireless carriers to launch or improve local mobile services using repurposed radio and TV broadcast towers, which could mean cellphone service for some of the province’s most rural and hard-to-reach areas, said people involved in the project. The towers could make use of an existing mobile carrier's spectrum, extending its service into hard-to-reach areas, the people said in interviews, or the communities may look at purchasing their own spectrum licences to roll out mobile service. Cathy Edwards, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), said in a phone interview last week that her group is consulting with six communities that want to roll out local mobile services using existing broadcast infrastructure, including decommissioned CBC/Radio-Canada and TVOntario television broadcast towers. Among them, she said, is Whitesand First Nation, located about 240 kilometres from Thunder Bay, Ont., which wants to use its community radio tower to provide mobile services to visiting hunters and anglers. “They have a community radio channel already, but they’d really like cellphone service within a 90-kilometre area,” Edwards said of the Whitesand community. “What they’d like is that when people come up from Thunder Bay because the majority own cellphones, they’d like those cellphones to work while they’re working or on holiday.” Independent telecom consultant Michael Rozender, based in Grimsby, Ont., said initiatives like that of the Whitesand community could generate revenues for the partnering wireless carrier and the community. The community could charge a fee to let the carrier use its radio tower, which in this case is owned by the community and located on Whitesand First Nations land. He said a partnering carrier could charge residents and other users for their use of the network. “It’s a win-win situation,” Rozender said. Edwards said CACTUS is now working with 87 communities that took control of TVO towers after the public broadcaster decommissioned its analog, over-the-air signal last year. In Ontario, she said, Prince Township is interested in using its local tower to provide cellular service, while Moonbeam, Latchford and Chisholm Township want to use existing towers to strengthen mobile services. New Tucumseth, Ont., has also asked CACTUS to help determine whether nearby TVO towers could be used to offer mobile services to its residents, Edwards said. “Our work will be ongoing regarding these towers for at least another year and we have just begun outreach to Ontario communities,” she said. A number of Ontario fixed wireless Internet providers have also expressed interest in using decommissioned broadcast towers to expand the range of their existing services, Edwards said. Katie Crowe, a spokeswoman for Northern Ontario telecom provider TBayTel, said the company looked at rolling out mobile services in the Whitesand area five years ago but found it would be too costly to do so. Edwards said those costs could come down if the municipally owned company worked in partnership with the First Nations community. She said TBayTel’s proposal would have required the costly installation and operation of infrastructure along 240 kilometers of highway to connect and carry mobile signals in the Whitesand area. CACTUS is now consulting with the community and looking at potential solutions to bring down the price of operating in the Whitesand area, Edwards said, noting that the group will explore other possible solutions. “That’s where we’re at with Whitesand,” she said. Marc Choma, a spokesman for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), agreed that it would be cheaper for wireless carriers to roll out mobile networks using existing infrastructure and that it would be easier for a community to partner with a carrier than operate on its own. “If a licensed carrier had spectrum in an area but it wasn’t economical for them to actually cover that, then that’s where a partnership could come into play,” Choma said. Whitesand economic development officer Clifford Tibishkogijig said the community started talking with CACTUS a month ago about the possibility of using its radio tower for mobile wireless services. The idea, he said, has been well received by the community. “Early assessments indicated to us that people would overwhelmingly support this,” he said, adding the community sees mobile service as a top priority, ahead of improving broadcast distribution or Internet services. Tibishkogijig said local residents and businesses would make use of the service, as well as visitors. “I think the business community in Whitesand would be very interested and have a greater potential with the cell service,” he said. Choma said that, in November 2012, Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. partnered with Norway House Cree Nation, and reimbursed the First Nation for the construction of a local cell site. At the time, MTS said the community was the first to enter into an agreement with the company to expand cell coverage in its area. Edwards said communities like Whitesand are most concerned about access to mobile services, not revenues. “If TbayTel comes in and says, ‘We can only afford to do this if we get free access to your tower,’ I think the average municipality would be happy to have them come in and do it for free,” she said. TBayTel spokeswoman Crowe said the company has been in touch with CACTUS about the Whitesand community’s suggestion to partner with the company. She said discussions are in the “very preliminary” stages. —With reporting by Danika Grenier at dgrenier@thewirereport.ca and editing by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Ontario communities look at repurposing broadcast towers for mobile services

News | May 22, 2013

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Ontario communities look at repurposing broadcast towers for mobile services

News | May 22, 2013

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Bell MTS defends service in Manitoba after CCPA study

$43.7M in Connect to Innovate funds allocated for Manitoba

Telus closes deal for 100K MTS subscribers

Bell’s scale advantage widening after MTS deal: Barclays

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us