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Peterborough, ON
kudos:1 | Nexicom Wireless featured in local news BROADBAND GRANT: Unwired payoff
Peterborough County leading rural wireless revolution
By Examiner Staff
Editorial - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 Updated @ 3:00:35 AM
Three years ago, Peterborough County got nothing but dead air when it applied for $1 million from Queen’s Park and Ottawa to bring wireless Internet access to remote parts of the county.
More than $50 million was on the table but none of it came Peterborough’s way. Part of the reason was that the Greater Peterborough Area Economic Development Corp. mishandled the application.
Back then the GPAEDC was in state of administrative turmoil. Faced with a tight deadline, it submitted an application on behalf of the county that was missing some key information. Predictably, the application was rejected.
County officials and politicians weren’t happy, and the failed grant request contributed to the disgruntlement that almost caused the county to pull out of its partnership with the City of Peterborough in the GPAEDC.
However, they didn’t just sit at their keyboards and complain. Recognizing that an old, slow dial-up Internet service wasn’t going to allow existing businesses to compete or attract new ones, county councillors started to invest local tax dollars.
In partnership with Nexicom, a Millbrook-based Internet provider, the county spent $1 million to build 11 transmission towers that brought a broadband signal to resorts and communities that otherwise wouldn’t have high-speed service.
It was a far-sighted investment, and not one that many rural communities were making.
The immediate payoff was competitive, 21st-century communication access for businesses and residents. Resorts could offer bookings over the Internet. Small businesses could deal with customers across the country, or around the globe. Cottagers could stay in touch with home and work. Suddenly there was easy access to MSN, Facebook and YouTube – no small thing in the lives of teenagers.
Now that payoff in technological competitiveness has been extended to cold, hard cash. After being shut out from previous provincial funding, Peterborough County has been given $1 million from a new, $10-million broadband fund.
The money will help pay for seven more towers and extend coverage to 90 per cent of the county where there are clusters of population.
Significantly, the grant represents 10 per cent of all available funding and is $300,000 more than the county asked for. Seventeen other municipalities are sharing the rest. That disproportionate share is likely in part a make-up for the previous rejection, but also recognizes how far Peterborough County has come on its own.
County officials believe they have the best developed rural broadband network in the province, all done with local money and a local private sector partner. That’s the kind of performance that should, and apparently did, impress the decision makers at Queen’s Park.
And while there is no federal money available at the moment, the county’s forward-thinking commitment should also lock in a strong connection when Ottawa does release more money for broadband development.
Even if no grants had materialized, the county’s investment in a wireless network that the private sector wasn’t going to provide on its own was the right call. Now that decision looks to be wired for sound . . . and video . . . and telephone service . . . and banking . . .
»www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/···itorials
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