Close cellphone gap is next EORN project
Better cellphone service and a better, safer broadband communications network are the next goals for Prescott-Russell’s regional digital information project.
Jim Pine, spokesman for the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) project, outlined the next goals for EORN to the United Counties of Prescott-Russell council (UCPR) during a June 22 presentation on the history of the project and its success to date. EORN is one of the economic development improvement initiatives of the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus (EOWC) and Pine noted that the UCPR has played a key role in EORN’s success.
“Your counties have been one of the big leaders,” Pine said, noting that EORN has achieved its primary goal since it began improving overall access to high-speed Internet service for Eastern Ontario, including extending high-speed access to many rural “digital potholes” in the information superhighway which had just slow dial-up service.
Pine observed that in Eastern Ontario, more than 425,000 homes and businesses now have access to broadband service of at least 10 megabytes per second through extension of fibre-optic cable links throughout the region. The EORN project, through a partnership between the EOWC, senior governments, and the private sector, has also helped provide fibre-optic links to 63 business parks within numerous municipalities.
“That (digital linkage) is an economic development tool we feel is important for businesses to grow,” said Pine, adding that the $175 million investment through EORN to enhance business Internet access works out to a $260 million value-added feature for Eastern Ontario’s business sector.
EORN will continue to improve highspeed access for the region even as project planners shift attention to the next priorities: closing the cellular gap for Eastern Ontario’s mobile phone setup and strengthening the region’s broadband safety net.
“This is also important for economic development,” said Pine. “It’s also important for police, fire, ambulance, and other emergency services to be able to connect during an event.”
The EORN update report noted that, right now, Eastern Ontario has two primary mobile phone service providers through their relay towers. About 71 per cent of the region has cellphone service available. There remains a coverage gap of 14.1 per cent where no cell service exists within populated areas of the region and a 1.8 per cent gap for areas where few or no people live. There is also a 12.9 per cent total area within the region where there is no demand for mobile service.
EORN’s Cellular Gap goal is to improve cellular coverage to 86.4 per cent, reducing the coverage gap in populated areas of the region to about half a per cent and make Eastern Ontario “one of the best connected regions of Canada.”
While increasing the capacity for cellular service in the region, EORN wants Eastern Ontario to serve as a “test pilot” for a public safety broadcast network setup. This would be a standalone network system to provide police and other first-responders with a secure communications setup so they can be sure of being in touch with each other during an emergency situation.
EORN planners are now working on a business case to present to the provincial and federal governments either by the end of the year or early in 2017 on the projected cost to combine both the Cellular Gap and the Broadband Safety Network proposals. A preliminary estimate is such a combined program could cost $247 million, which would be about $50 million less if each was done on its own at different times.