ERIN – Town of Erin residents could soon benefit from higher-speed internet should a new telecommunications tower be approved.
On Jan. 27, council received a delegation from Evan Turunen, a planner with Toronto-based Canacre Ltd, on behalf of Xplornet, a rural internet service provider and mobile network operator.
The company is looking to install a 45-metre (148-foot) telecommunications tower in the town. The site would also include a small equipment shelter at the base of the tower.
“This network expansion is part of Xplornet’s mission to make affordable robust broadband available to every Canadian home and business,” Turunen said in his presentation.
“This tower will expand Xplornet’s wireless broadband high speed home internet and home phone services in the Town of Erin.”
The proposed tower is currently set to be located at 5562 Trafalgar Rd., near the intersection with Sideroad 17. This is the second tower Xplornet has proposed to the town.
The company proposed another tower in August at 5826 Winston Churchill Boulevard. Other locations have also been proposed in Wellington North and Mapleton.
Turunen said the service will offer speeds of up to 50 megabytes per second download and up to 10 megabytes per second upload.
As per the site plan outline, the compound itself will be 15m by 15m and the equipment shelter will be 2.1m by 2.4m.
The site, which is designated prime agriculture in the Town of Erin’s Official Plan, is located between two fields. Access to the tower would be through a private driveway off Sideroad 17.
This location was selected as the site would be able to provide optimal service to the community, while minimizing visual impacts to the surrounding areas and minimizing impact to agricultural land, states the report to council.
Turunen said other sites were considered but were rejected for not being compliant with Xplornet’s infrastructure requirements, or for being too close to neighbouring residents and would “have an increased aesthetic impact.
“The current proposal of a low visual of land use impacts within the community will provide a significant increase in home internet and home phone services,” he reiterated.
In attendance was one member of the public who lives approximately 1km from the proposed location who said they don’t have any objections to the proposal.
Council received the report for information.
