By Ahmad Hathout
VICTORIA – The broadband ministry under the British Columbia government has been seeking ways to speed up broadband deployments in the province, and a recent briefing note outlines some ways it suggested to do so ahead of its utilization of federal funding.
In the Citizens’ Services briefing note from January, obtained via a freedom of information legislation, the ministry suggested that it could confidentially share with BC Hydro the poles that are expected to be impacted by broadband projects in areas with the 115,000 underserved households in the province.
“BC Hydro can take projective steps to determine the state of the poles and accelerate project assessment requirements,” the note said.
Additionally, the ministry said it could also immediately notify BC Hydro about which poles will be impacted at the time of project approvals, the note said, adding the two could work together on cost estimates to “expand cellular to underserved segments of highway currently under development.”
The note is part of the ministry’s efforts to get ahead of new connectivity projects with spring application deadlines that are expected to utilize hydro poles. The province and Innovation Canada’s Universal Broadband Fund have already agreed to a total sum of $830 million to connect all households to high-speed connectivity, defined as 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. The province is aiming for 100 per cent coverage by 2027.
The province has acknowledged that a key part of this goal is access to passive infrastructure, including hydro poles, a network of which is shared between BC Hydro and Telus.
The ministry acknowledged in the note that service providers not named Telus can experience project timelines that exceed two years. That also means delayed revenues for both the utility and Telus.
The ministry told Cartt that it “works collaboratively with permit-issuing ministries to track connectivity projects in progress as well as provide information for service providers on the permitting process,” and that BC Hydro “actively participates in connectivity project reviews and is working with a cross-government team on permitting with the goal increasing efficiency in the end-to-end permitting process.”
The BC Industry Working Group, which includes pole owners and telecoms, is intended to increase transparency related to pole access.
The ministry added it “understands that timely and equitable access to passive infrastructure (such as utility poles) is important to move connectivity projects forward for the benefit of British Columbians.”
Other provinces have taken steps to implement measures to streamline access to the infrastructure. Ontario implemented legislation in 2021 to reduce the cost service providers have to spend to attach equipment on the poles and speed up permitting, while Quebec has rules requiring review standards to speed up pole access and allow providers to do their own work on poles.
Both provinces also have some form of “one-touch” policy where one crew makes all necessary changes to the pole in one go.
Cartt reported earlier this month that Shaw suggested a new BC Hydro telecom division to tackle permitting delays. While the province said it would not be implementing such a recommendation, it noted that it has a dedicated team that “works to ensure timely attachments to its infrastructure.”
In February, the CRTC ruled that third party attachers should not bear the full cost of replacing a pole when they want to attach equipment as part of its effort to help move broadband projects along. The ruling only impacts telco-owned poles.
