HURON COUNTY, ON – Ontario cooperative Hay Communications is raising the alarm about alleged duplicated effort and fibre overbuild in Huron County, Ont., due to government-funded broadband projects being constructed in areas where fibre cables already exist.
In a recent interview with CTV News London, Hay Communications’ general manager Angela Lawrence voiced her frustration about what she calls “a waste of taxpayer’s money,” namely a section of fibre internet cables being installed in southern Huron County as part of a project funded through the Ontario government’s Accelerated High Speed Internet Program (AHSIP). Lawrence’s concern is that her company has already deployed fibre cable in the same area.
The “120 kilometres of fibre that was existing, the province has seen fit to award to other companies funding to build it again. It just doesn’t make sense to us,” Lawrence said in the CTV News London interview, which Hay Communications has since circulated as a press release.
Lawrence said she isn’t able to speak to how much the new fibre installation is costing, “but it costs Hay Communications $10,000 per kilometre to install fibre internet cables underground, and between $1,000 and $2,000 to connect each individual customer,” according to the report.
Part of her concern is the new construction could potentially damage Hay’s existing fibre cables, the report says.
“There are enough places in Ontario that do not have any options. That’s where the money should be going,” she added.
Lawrence has brought the issue of fibre overbuild in southern Huron County to the attention of Ontario’s Ministry of Infrastructure, and shared the ministry’s July 11 emailed response with Cartt.ca.
When contacted directly by Cartt.ca, a media spokesperson for the Ministry of Infrastructure responded via email, saying the Ontario government “has made significant efforts to optimize public funds to reach underserved communities and avoid overbuild as much as possible.”
However, the ministry is dependent on data provided by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), which manages and verifies internet service territory data across Canada, the ministry spokesperson explained.
“To be as precise as possible, the Ministry used the most up-to-date and verified data available on service levels provided by ISED when project details were being scoped. At the time of project agreement execution, the Ministry had minimized overbuild in project areas based on the best available information at the time. Where the ministry has addressed overbuild when executing agreements using the best available information at that time, it will proceed with those projects.
“Reviewing and re-scoping project funding agreements on an ongoing basis due to continuously changing service levels will create significant instability with provincially funded projects and put at risk the government’s commitment to bring high-speed internet to every region of the province by the end of 2025,” the spokesperson added.
The overlapping of fibre builds may also be a natural result of internet service providers making business decisions to expand their networks, potentially into areas where government-funded projects have been approved. Conversely, ISPs that have received government funding for projects may decide to use their own resources to expand the build.
Hay Communications itself received government funding through Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) for a fibre broadband project in south Huron County, which the company completed in June 2022, according to SWIFT’s approved projects webpage. However, this funded project did not include the section of fibre cabling that Lawrence says is now being duplicated by a new government-funded project.
Photo of fibre cables being installed along Parr Line in southern Huron County from CTV News London report, courtesy of Hay Communications.
