Interconnected

Mayor Peter Mertens welcomes stakeholders and guests to the Regent Theatre last week for a meeting of the Eastern Ontario Regional Network.

Leaders gather to celebrate the building of a network

By the end of the first decade of the third millennium, there was mounting evidence that communities in eastern Ontario were being left behind. Many complained we were on the wrong side of Toronto to compete for trade with U.S. markets.

The Internet promised to be the great equalizer— levelling the playing field for an increasingly digital online economy. But there was a problem. Many residents and businesses in eastern Ontario lacked access to broadband Internet. The private sector providers served select markets, mainly easyto- reach urban regions, but none were rushing to fill in the regional gap. There were too few residents scattered across too much geography to justify the investment.

It became clear to many municipal politicians and officials that Eastern Ontario risked falling back further. They could not wait for the private sector to link their communities to the global opportunities of the Internet.

So in 2009, a group led by Hastings County manager Jim Pine, headed to Ottawa looking for support for a plan to build a broadband backbone, linking the communities of eastern Ontario to the Internet. They met with MP Daryl Kramp. A few minutes into their pitch, Kramp arranged for a meeting with John Baird, then minister of transport.

From those initial meetings came a commitment for $55 million toward developing the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN)—its primary feature is a 5,500 kilometre fibre optic backbone snaking across 50,000 square kilometres from Glengarry to Haliburton, Peterborough and Northumberland. The Eastern Ontario Warden’s Caucus put up $10 million. Bell and its affiliates contributed $23 million. The province also put money for the project. Altogether, the $170 million network encompasses a region of more than one million people.

The goal: enable 95 per cent of homes and businesses in eastern Ontario, a majority of which will see speeds up to 10 Mbps.

Last week, the architects, builders and suppliers of this project gathered in Picton to recognize their achievement.

Their host, Mayor Peter Mertens, welcomed participants to the Regent Theatre. He noted that the historic theatre was built nearly a century ago as a means to connect this community with the outside world, its stories and culture.

“Ninety-two years later, we are still talking about making connections to the outside world,” said Mertens.

He underlined the key role broadband Internet was playing in the development of the County’s economy.

There are nine new businesses at the PEC Innovation Centre,” said Mertens. “Without high speed Internet access they wouldn’t be here.”

Linda Thompson spoke on be-half of the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus.“

“Nobody was going to bring it to us,” said Thompson. “We had to build a foundation for growth.”

A variety of Internet providers now offer a range of broadband connectivity from the backbone to consumers, business and business parks. These ISPs have also filled out many of the inaccessible points in the region with satellite service.

Many of those who rose to the podium on the Regent stage drew analogies to the development of the railway a century ago.

MP Daryl Kramp praised the courage of the early proponents,

“Everyone understood they needed this to be competitive,” said Kramp. “In a competitive world, when you stand still, you are falling behind. Everybody took their partisan hats of and threw them away. It was a team effort.”