County councillors heard on Aug. 12 Wellington County could be the first place in Canada to receive new 4th generation high speed internet service technology.
Bill MacDonald, senior vice president for strategy and development for Barrett XPlore Inc. (BXI), came to county council to explain why some customers are facing changes to their service and most are going to have to wait for new high speed internet services.
MacDonald said BXI is the largest service provider in Canada with over 130,000 customers, and 50,000 of those in Ontario. He said the company is strictly a rural internet service provider and has been operating since 2006, using a variety of technologies.
BXI recently bought bankrupt Everus Communications and is now in talks with the county, with which it hopes to sign an internet service provision agreement that would give it access to a $1-million provincial grant controlled by the county for infrastructure to provide rural high speed service.
In the presentation to council, the company stated 4G technology is a “next-generation infrastructure that delivers faster internet access.” BXI is leveraging 4G technology on their future fixed wireless towers to enable more capacity and faster service on their network. BXI is not switching to a stick or dongle technology (a dongle is a piece of hardware that attaches to a computer in order to make a piece of secured software run).
“4G is an upgrade to BXI’s existing fixed wireless network infrastructure,” MacDonald said. He added BXI might roll it out first in Wellington County.
MacDonald said that means the company will connect homes by towers and wireless service.
He explained BXI bought some assets of Everus. It had 99 towers, and BXI bought 82 of them. Then the company learned 17 of those towers will have to be decommissioned, and that will affect 540 customers in Wellington, Huron, Bruce and Perth Counties and Waterloo Region. Over 300 of those are in Wellington County.
MacDonald said the changes happened because some of the towers were not in BXI’s control, and he noted the company has spent $400,000 since the purchase of Everus to keep things operational. He added 3,100 of the Everus customers will not be affected by the changes.
He said customers in Wellington who will be disrupted because of the tower decommissioning will all be offered either a satellite connection or, in some cases, the company will try to point their towers to pick up signals from working towers. The company has already done over 40 changes and hopes the customers stay with BXI until the new technology is in place.
He said “85% of Everus customers are not affected” by the tower problems.
MacDonald said BXI’s plans will eventually connect most parts of rural Wellington, and customers being forced to change now will be offered the new service when it is available.
Councillor Rod Finnie said it appeared from company maps the northern part of Erin is being ignored, and he constantly gets complaints and requests for high speed service from that area.
MacDonald said BXI has invested “hundreds of millions of dollars in two satellites,” and that will eventually bring “faster and more reliable service” to customers.
He said that once the technology is operational, “We’ll look at who’s left and see what we can do.” Finnie asked how long that will take. MacDonald said that will depend on the technology, and once it is ready, about a year.
“We’ll work outward as it becomes available,” he said.
Finnie asked about costs.
MacDonald said the company is now offering the same speed to customers facing changes as they had with Everus, and the new technology will have “greater capacity and speeds” and there will be “a variety of packages” depending on costs. He said the intent is “not just cheaper service, but better.”
Councillor Lou Maieron said it seems northern Erin is the big spot left out of the service when the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food offered a $1-million grant to the county for a company that needed help to provide high speed internet.
MacDonald replied, “We were directed to other areas.”
But Maieron said the deal for that grant money between the county and BXI is not yet signed, and he wondered, “Who do we ask; how do we get service into Erin?
MacDonald replied, “Through your [county] team and OMAFRA.”
Maieron asked if that means there is still an opportunity for northern Erin. MacDonald said “There is a finite amount of money. If you move one thing here, it leaves a gap there.”
Maieron said compared to other areas, rural Erin is more highly populated and urbanized and it “may have more customers.”
Councillor Mark MacKenzie said there is a similar situation in Minto, and there is another service provider considering moving into that area.
MacDonald said of some competition, “Good.”
He added it is still BXI’s intent to keep the customers affected by the tower removals until the new network is in place.
“We would have preferred to keep the towers but that was not sustainable,” he said.
Councillor Chris White said he hopes service will not be interrupted for current users.
Councillor Brad Whitcombe, of Puslinch, said he is making the change to the company’s satellite service for now, but he wants to make sure customers are switched over promptly, and not left without service when the towers are decommissioned on Sept. 1.
MacDonald said the company BXI uses for its installations has been hiring extra staff and he is sure it will be able to handle the demand for the changes in time.
