Quebec plan to invest in rural fibre stalled, ISPs say

A $900 million investment by the Quebec government to bring high-speed broadband connectivity to its unserved and underserved residents over 10 years has made little progress since it was first announced last winter, small Quebec Internet service providers (ISPs) say. In a provincial budget introduced on March 17, 2011, the Quebec government announced a plan to equip the province “with a network offering very high-speed internet service in every region of Quebec by 2020.” The plan at the time, the government said, was to “light up” thousands of kilometers of planted but unused fibre optic cables to help extend broadband Internet to semi-urban, rural and remote areas of the province. More than a year later, Robert Proulx, president of small Quebec ISP Xittel Telecommunications Inc., said the project has not moved beyond the discussion phase. “We had some presentations explaining the project and the view of it, but we didn’t see any progress of that in the field,” Proulx said. “Presently, it’s more discussing things than doing things.” In a May 2012 document entitled “Passer à la vitesse supérieure,” the Quebec government said the $900 million investment plan aims to bring high-speed fibre-to-the-home Internet access to Quebec residents who are unserved or underserved by incumbent telcos. The document said the government planned to make 100 Mbps download speeds available to those residents by 2020. “The strategy puts at the foreground a plan to enhance and extend telecommunications infrastructure providing access to high-speed Internet,” the document said. Proulx said the plan is an “extraordinary” project but has been slowed by government studies. “We were very happy when we saw it, but it’s dragging and dragging and dragging on,” he said in a telephone interview last month. In the document,the government said the plan aims to bring high-speed Internet to 104 regional county municipalities by 2020, of which six will serve as initial pilot projects. In a May press release, the Quebec government announced that as a part of the plan the d’Argenteuil regional county would receive $6.2 million to improve Internet services offered to its residents, while the du Granit regional county would receive $5 million. The pilot projects are slated to be completed by 2014, the release said. Clément Falardeau, a spokesman for the Quebec government, said in an interview last week that the government has not yet announced the locations of the other four pilot projects. Joseph Bassili, president of small Quebec ISP Colba.net Telecom Inc., said in an interview that the dollar figures attached to the pilot projects are “significant” for rural Quebec communities, but he has not yet seen any progress on those projects since the May announcement. “It’s significant, but I don’t know what happened with it,” he said. “But $6 million in the province of Quebec for rural areas, that’s certainly very good.” Proulx said the project is currently in an “analyze and study phase” as the government considers what infrastructure is already available in certain territories across the province, and which communities should be targeted as priorities. He said the delays in rolling out the projects are hurting smaller ISPs in regions that were ready to invest in high-speed networks prior to the government’s announcement. Proulx told The Wire Report that some of the 104 regions under consideration have the means and the capability to roll out a high-speed network. “But with government investment in sight, they don’t want to go and do it anymore,” he said. “So they’re waiting.” Proulx said his own plans to expand Xittel’s network into 300 rural villages has been put on hold due to the announcement. “They announce a project and everyone is waiting for the project to do something, but my business during that time has to survive,” he said. In an emailed statement to The Wire Report Falardeau said the government has done extensive research to confirm the “technological orientations” that determine which regions and counties are the best candidates for the pilot projects. He did not specify what characteristics would qualify a county for the project, but suggested that existing infrastructure was a determining factor. “We need to know what is available in the infrastructures,” he said in a follow-up phone call. “That was the first step for us to do, to know what is there and how we can improve on it.” Benoît Gravel, project manager for the d’Argenteuil trial, said in an interview that the municipality was “very happy” with the $6.2 million announcement, which he called a “huge” amount of money. Gravel said projects could always be deployed faster but the Quebec government wants to make sure the $900 million project is done right. “Their objective was to do a very precise cartography of the territory to be able to have an accurate portrait of reality and to move forward with good solutions adapted to needs,” he said. Gravel said he does not yet know how the $6.2 million will be implemented, but said the d’Argenteuil municipal government is ready to meet with ministers to establish a plan to deploy fibre. He said the Argenteuil municipality covers an expansive geographic territory that is not yet covered by either high-speed Internet service or wireless networks. He added that the region wants to try to bring a “very high quality” Internet connection to its approximate 32,000 residents. Gravel said there is already fibre laid throughout much of the province to service the equipment of incumbents BCE Inc., Quebecor Media Inc. subsidiary Videotron Ltd., Cogeco Cable Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., but said there are still many neighbourhoods and households that are not connected to that fibre backbone network. He added that when the Quebec government announced the investment, it set a summer 2014 completion date for the Argenteuil and du Granit pilot projects. As far as he knew, he said, that timeframe “remains the same.” Both Gravel and Bassili said they do not think the Quebec provincial election, which took place Sept. 4, will affect the $900 million project’s completion. On Tuesday, Quebecers elected Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti Québécois, to a minority government in the province over the Quebec Liberals led by Jean Charest. Gravel said the project did not appear on any platform during the election campaign. “As far as I know, all political parties seemed to be in favour of major investments in Quebec telecommunications and of deploying high-speed Internet to the whole of the population,” he said. In a follow-up phone call Wednesday, Bassili said he believes Marois’ sovereignist PQ minority government will carry on with the project that will support Quebec’s provincial infrastructure. “They won’t cancel that project I do not think, because they are very very Quebec oriented,” he said. dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Quebec plan to invest in rural fibre stalled, ISPs say

News | September 5, 2012

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Quebec plan to invest in rural fibre stalled, ISPs say

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