By Lynn Greiner
TORONTO – The Regional Municipality of York occupies 1,800 square kilometres just north of Toronto, with a population of 1.2 million in nine municipalities. It’s a mix of high-density urban and sparsely populated rural areas, so providing consistent Internet service to such a widespread and disparate region is a real challenge.
However, said Laura Bradley, general manager of YorkNet, “We believe there should be equitable access to high speed internet. So regardless of where you live, in terms of the region, we have a fundamental belief that everyone should have equal ability to get the same types of internet or broadband services relative to what they do in terms of working life. And one of the reasons that we do this is because we believe that it’s a fundamental service. And in addition to that, we actually believe in open access.”
That’s why YorkNet was born.
During her virtual presentation at CommTech East, Bradley explained YorkNet believes the dark fibre network it has built is every bit as much a part of municipal infrastructure as roads and sewers. And, she said, “Something that municipalities do and do well is build infrastructure and maintain infrastructure – and that’s a key component in terms of where we believe we’re headed.” Plus, as shown in one of her slides, a fibre build is far cheaper than roads, sewers or water mains.
YorkNet builds its dark fibre for three key areas: regional operations, local municipal activities, and third parties. The Region lights up its fibre for connecting its own facilities and partners, local municipalities use it for communications around their services (water, wastewater, fire, police, traffic control, and more), and third parties use it for all sorts of things, including providing Internet service to businesses and consumers. YorkNet itself does not provide services to end users; it relies on others to light up the fibre it supplies.
A CIRA survey in July revealed that providers increased download speeds in urban areas to just under 52 megabits per second, a leap to double that found by the previous survey. However, in rural areas, at 5.6 megabits per second, there was little change. This was not, Bradley hastened to add, due to lack of effort by providers, but rather because of a fundamental lack of infrastructure support. Upload speed, too, is important, especially during Covid-19 working and studying from home.
“The focus is much more on the people, on the communities, on what we want a community to look like for the future, on how we want it to thrive and be sustainable.” – Laura Bradley, YorkNet
“But what we become relevantly aware of, much like this morning (where her connectivity initially failed and delayed the presentation), unfortunately, is the upload speed is very, very, very important,” she said, “and it’s not necessarily enough to just say you have good upload speed, because apparently, when I do a speed test, I do have good upload speed. But it’s whether or not it actually works.”
But there’s still a digital divide in the Region – limited funds restrict the amount of infrastructure that can be built, and in sparsely-populated or areas that are challenging to build in, the business case is poor. In rural areas, there’s often very little competition and thus little choice for customers. By investing in dark fibre and leasing it out, YorkNet enables providers who couldn’t afford to lay their own fibre trunk and encourages competition. Its business model is to engage in public/private partnerships, do fibre swaps, and co-builds, to help facilitate connectivity for the community.
Just last week, independent ISP Vianet announced it is using YorkNet’s fibre to launch services in Georgina.
“I often tell people who ask “why fibre?” that fibre is the hundred-year solution,” Bradley explained. “There is no doubt that in terms of scalable, long term secure assets in the telecommunications field, this is the one that’s going to win. Lots of people want to debate this with things like satellite and wireless, but the truth of the matter is” with the development of the electronics at either end of the fibre, “we’ve managed to increase the capacities dramatically in the last 20 years.
While the electronics and software will change and develop, “the fibre itself, we’re going to have that asset for a long time. And if we take care of it and maintain it properly, it’s going to last much longer than the projected 50 years, which is why we like to say it’s the hundred-year solution.”
The more fibre in rural areas, the more opportunities there will be for future technologies, she pointed out. YorkNet’s plan is to build 800 kilometres of fibre throughout urban and rural areas of the Region, and to work with partners to ensure more rural areas are lit up. This will foster equity of services and foster economic development, innovation, and opportunities. Costs, especially in comparison to everything else the region does, is low. YorkNet’s forecast expenditure for 2020 is $2.8 million and $3 million next year, or 0.1% of the region’s expenditures. And while Bradley didn’t mention it in her presentation, fibre backhaul will be extraordinarily important as 5G wireless is deployed, meaning YorkNet is building an asset with several possible ways it will pay for itself.
“Our focus is really on communities, residents and businesses,” she said. “While we build infrastructure, and we love technology, the reality is that’s not where the focus is, the focus is much more on the people, on the communities, on what we want a community to look like for the future, on how we want it to thrive and be sustainable. We need to focus on where the heart is, and that’s with the people and the communities.”
