MONTREAL — Bell today expressed concerns about the ability of many Internet service providers (ISPs) involved in the Canada-Quebec Operation High Speed initiative to meet the project’s September 30, 2022 completion deadline.
Just days before the March 22 announcement of the Operation High Speed initiative by the federal and Quebec governments, Bell announced it was implementing a plan to help accelerate the process for ISPs to access Bell infrastructure such as poles and other communications support structures.
“While most of the ISPs involved are taking the project process seriously and have accelerated their infrastructure access requests, many are facing significant challenges that could impact project delivery,” reads a Bell press release.
“As of today, with one year to go before the September 30, 2022 deadline, many ISPs are far from delivering the access requests at the necessary pace. In fact, Bell has received barely half of the requests required in the agreements with the Québec government. While the pace has improved recently, a backlog has already been accumulated in the first five months of the operation.”
Bell says it keeps the Quebec government informed “of the progress of infrastructure access requests on a weekly basis and provides ongoing collaboration to support ISPs experiencing delays.”
“For the ISPs who are working to make Operation High Speed a reality, the coordinated infrastructure permit process is working very well and we thank them for moving the project forward, however, the permit requests received to date are not sufficient,” said Karine Moses, Bell’s vice chair, Quebec, in the press release.
“The tight timeline set out in the agreements for the full deployment of high-speed Internet causes significant challenges, compounded by a shortage of skilled labour, such as pole planters and other specialized professionals at the heart of the necessary infrastructure work, in addition to the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on the supply chain.
“This only further underscores the need for all ISPs involved to step up their game quickly, otherwise we may collectively face the unfortunate prospect of seeing the Operation High-Speed deadline pushed back significantly,” Moses said.
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