Newly-acquired WireIE helping maximize ISED CTI funding: CEO

WireIE Holdings International Inc., a wholesaler of enterprise telecom services, has been helping telecoms across the country deliver internet and TV services to underserved areas, an effort that will be boosted by its acquisition this week, its CEO said. That includes helping RFNow deliver on a government-approved project in northern Manitoba, an area the government has outlined as having the worst connectivity in the country. The Richmond Hill company has been assisting RFNow Inc. with deploying the $30 million that ISED has pledged to connect indigenous communities in the region. “We’re helping them stretch the ISED dollars,” Rob Barlow, CEO of WireIE, said in a phone interview this week. That means the two companies are looking at ways to deliver the project in a cost-effective manner. Barlow added that he could not comment on the specifics of the projects RFNow is working on. This week, WireIE was acquired by Calgary-based finance firm Crown Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. The deal includes a “performance-based” payout of $5 million. WireIE has already been receiving funds from Crown Capital totalling $7.6 million to date, said a July 15 press release announcing the deal. “We hope with this acquisition, we can move those projects along quicker,” Barlow said. Founded in 2007, WireIE owns and operates data networks nationally -- including fibre -- and delivers to a host of industries including oil and gas, utilities, healthcare and government. Among its customers are incumbents in Canada and the United States, which seek cost- and resource-effective second-carrier alternatives for certain ethernet connections in underserved areas, Barlow said. RFNow, which is involved in other projects in the province, is partnered with indigenous group Wekitowak Communications Inc. and the Mathias Colomb First Nation to connect a number of indigenous communities in northern Manitoba, a project that will cost a total of $63 million. Its anticipated completion is March 2021. ISED, however, has admitted in newly-unearthed documents that their approved project has faced challenges, including a competing project that is also seeking its own fibre build but has not received needed funding from the government. In a secret August 2018 document, which highlighted northern Manitoba as having the worst connectivity in the country, the government said that 32 per cent of indigenous households in the country don’t have access to 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps speeds, and 71 per cent of households don’t have access to the CRTC’s basic service speeds of 50 Mbps download and 10 upload. RFNow did not respond to requests for comment about how its partnership with WireIE has benefitted it. This week’s deal will help WireIE expand its efforts geographically through capital injections, with a focus on underserved areas. The telecom already serves five indigenous communities in Manitoba and Northern Ontario and is working with another 50 communities, Barlow said. “We hope to be a source of capital,” Barlow said, alluding to the agile nature of the company, which he said means the company can provide services and assistance in more ways than just wholesaling. Its IPTV service is run on its private network and delivered through its exclusive partnership with Frontline 360 Inc. and with indigenous telecom Kuhkenah Network, or K-Net, to deliver the product, bundled with internet and IP telephone, to indigenous communities and wholesale businesses. In December, WireIE signed a memorandum of understanding with Winnipeg and RFNow to develop a fibre project in and around the city, called Connected to Opportunity, to provide broadband to 43 underserved communities. The region is not only facing a gap in connectivity and reliability, but in some areas where there is broadband, the residents’ appetite for data has pushed some telecoms toward a capacity problem. “We can’t afford to keep buying more bandwidth as we get saturated,” said one representative of an indigenous community internet service provider at a conference late last year. K-Net, which echoed the comments, said the increasing demand for bandwidth is escalating costs to upgrade and maintain the network. Barlow’s company is trying to alleviate some of that. With the newly-injected capital from the acquisition, Barlow said he sees the company “helping others...in markets who need assistance to grow.” WireIE has also been pressing the Ontario government to have a renewed focus on the Ring of Fire region, according to provincial lobby records. Back in 2017, the federal and Ontario governments pledged nearly $70 million to the northern Ontario area beset by poor connectivity for an 880 kilometre fibre build, which was set to be designed and installed by Rapid Lynx Telecommunications. BCE Inc. received $4 million in the area for a fibre backbone that would help six communities. Barlow said, currently, connectivity in the Ring of Fire is “not adequate.” WireIE is set on bringing IPTV and broadband enhancements to the region, he said. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Newly-acquired WireIE helping maximize ISED CTI funding: CEO

News | July 19, 2019

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