Long wait for high speed internet

Remember the internet.

A long, long time ago, the World Wide Web was born. I was alive when this miracle of communication happened.

And then, the internet was made available to lots of regular folks like you and me. Except it wasn’t available to all of the folks here in Annapolis County.

Apparently, other rural areas across this big land weren’t among the privileged to have internet service either. And so, the folks in Ottawa thought it would be a good idea to give some money to provinces and municipalities to see that everyone who wanted internet service could get that service, for a fee, of course.

So, the previous Annapolis County council decided the fastest/best way to get this now important service to the constituents was to own the fibre, but it had to be built first. The first attempt ran into problems – I’m not saying anything more about that part.

The second attempt has been as “slow as molasses in January.” I do have to say that I have good service here in Centrelea and am eternally grateful. Otherwise, I’d be sending my columns off to the Annapolis Valley Register by carrier pigeon.

Then there was the request for proposals to sell the now partially built fibre issued on Oct. 4, 2021. The apparent reasoning was that the county should not be in business. But we didn’t hear that discussion because it was in camera.

We now come to the present. Have we heard anything? Crickets.

Our duly elected council really needs to let its bosses know what’s going on. Is the fibre being sold? Are there conditions on the sale? Who won the bid? Is it a reputable company that cares about its customers? Is there a connection deadline for all of those people who signed up to get their service? I really think they sometimes forget that we hired them. People are just plain fed up with this schmozzle.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that people are angry. They are angry for all kinds of other reasons too, which are very obvious. This council needs to get on with this.

We are waiting out here. PS – I see the CAO’s report to the recent committee of the whole meeting says he had “various communications with staff, legal representatives and proponent regarding potential sale of internet.”

That’s pretty informative.