Some will still be waiting until 2023 for FTTH service
By Amanda OYE
QUEBEC CITY – While several provinces across the country have set their own targets for ensuring everyone has access to high-speed Internet before the 2030 federal goal to have the whole country connected, Quebec stands out for its ambitious plan to do so far sooner than the rest – and for actually meeting its target (early no less).
The province has been working towards providing high-speed Internet service (50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload, as defined by the CRTC) to everyone in the province by the end of September 2022.
With the deadline looming, parliamentary assistant to the premier for high-speed Internet in Quebec, Gilles Bélanger, told Cartt.ca in an interview they have already met their target. Some of the newly connected homes now have access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service while others have access to Starlink SpaceX satellite service subsidized by the province.
Bélanger, who was appointed to his current role in December 2020, had a budget of $1.3 billion to meet the Sept. 30, 2022, deadline but managed to do it with less. “We were able to do that project with about $700 million instead of $1.3 billion,” he said, adding the federal government also “chipped in almost a half billion.”
The Government of Quebec funded several high-speed Internet programs over the last few years to reach its goal, including the Canada-Quebec Operation High Speed project, announced in March 2021. One of the reasons for the success of the program is that the Internet service providers (ISPs) that were awarded contracts through Operation High Speed agreed to steep penalties if they did not deliver on time.
There is caveat to Bélanger’s achievement – not all homes that were planned to have FTTH service will have it by the deadline. Most of the remaining projects will be finished by the end of this year, with the final ones likely to be finished by March 2023. In the meantime, in order to still reach his connectivity deadline, Bélanger said those waiting for FTTH service will be able to take advantage of subsidized satellite service that meet the 50/10 Mbps speed requirement.
Tens of thousands of households will fall into this category. At the end of June there were around 70,000 households they realized would not have service by the Sept. 30 deadline. This is based on information from an audit team, which will report again in the next week or two. “But I planned to have several thousand delayed,” Bélanger said. “That’s why, when we were sure because of the audit that they will not respect the date, we flipped all the territory to (be eligible for subsidized) satellite.”
Some locations in Quebec were always going to have satellite access instead of FTTH service. There are about 10,000 homes in Quebec that the province is subsidizing satellite service for “because it’s too costly to go with the fibre optic,” explained Bélanger. For these homes, the Quebec government is providing funding for the start-up kit and $40 per month for service.
This same offer is now also being extended to those locations in the province that do not have access to fibre optic right now but will soon.
This will be paid for with the penalties paid by the ISPs that do not meet the Sept. 30 deadline. “We will subsidize the delay, and the penalties should offset the cost of that contingency plan,” Bélanger said.
The Quebec government will ultimately own the equipment purchased, “so, if you return it to us, we may decide to install it later on, on a different project that was not part of the Operation High Speed,” said Bélanger.
Operation High Speed projects have been delayed for a number of reasons.
Bélanger pointed out there was a tornado, for example, that led to some infrastructure needing to be reinstalled and Covid-19 restrictions that meant workers had to take time off when people who lived with them tested positive for Covid-19 and they had to quarantine regardless of whether they were sick themselves.
There were also some supply chain issues, but those were limited, “because we gave them money – nearly 80%… of the entire contract – early to make sure that they can order inventory,” Bélanger said.
But none of these issues is an excuse for missing the deadline, he clarified, explaining that when the ISPs signed their contracts, they knew the risks involved and as such, should have had a contingency plan in place.
The biggest issue Bélanger pointed to was with ISP’s that underestimated the effort needed to complete their projects. “That’s why we had penalties,” he explained. “Connecting 10,000 households in a rural area – it’s a big job… It’s not like downtown Montreal or downtown Toronto or Ottawa – you do less per date than you do in an urban area.”
Bélanger also noted in rural areas the infrastructure is sometimes old and will need to be fixed – a problem ISPs can underestimate.
There were also problems with some of the smaller ISPs that were part of Québec Branché – a previous provincial high-speed Internet program that the government needed to reinject money into – including an ISP going bankrupt.
Even some of the service providers that were strong on the financial side of things Bélanger found had problems because they needed to build up their organization. “Xplornet is one of them, so I’m not that impressed so far,” he said.
This is not to say the problems were widespread – the program, after all, has essentially achieved its goal and there were ISPs – large and small – that did a great job, according to Bélanger. “Cooptel, they’re very good – when they say that they will deliver they deliver,” he said, adding Bell Canada also did a pretty good job but knowing what delivering late would mean, they were more conservative in their approach to taking on projects.
Other provinces with their own high-speed Internet goals are years behind Quebec even with its slight delay. Ontario is aiming for full connectivity by the end of 2025, for example, while British Columbia is aiming for 2027.
Meanwhile, Quebec will pivot to address mobile connectivity in 2023, Bélanger said.
