ANNAPOLIS ROYAL, N.S. — Annapolis County’s fibre-optic internet network is back on track after the municipality approved a contract with Eagle Telecom Ltd.
"The voice of Annapolis County residents has been very clear on this issue: internet connectivity is an essential service, and its lack is an impediment to our quality of life and capacity for progress. They asked their councillors and their municipality to take decisive action to solve this problem," said Timothy Habinski, warden for the County of Annapolis. "This is our response."
On April 28, 2017, county council approved a temporary borrowing resolution that put forward the formal request to the province indicating the county’s intent to borrow $13,000,000 to build backbone fibre optic cable in key areas within the county boundaries.
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The county contribution is part of a funding formula that includes federal, provincial, and municipal contributions totaling almost $18,000,000.
Habinski said citizens can expect fibre optic internet speeds to equal or exceed the highest internet speeds anywhere in Canada, with service to homes in the range of one gigabit down and one gigabit up.
“Final financing approval of our borrowing request is under review by the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs and we will know the outcome in the near future,” said Habinski. “The $13,000,000 dollars borrowed for backbone fibre will be paid back by residential and commercial users.”
John Ferguson, Annapolis County’s chief administrative officer, said he was pleased to see negotiations move smoothly to a completed and signed contract.
Eagle Telecom Ltd has an office based in Fredericton, N.B. with branch offices in Woodstock, N.B. and Dartmouth.
The municipality had entered into a contract in writing with Mainland Telecom Inc. to build internet infrastructure for $13,000,000. The municipality intended to finance this cost.
“The municipality was forced to terminate for convenience the contract with MTI due to cost overruns and ongoing delays,” a county media release said. “The Nova Scotia Power Inc. make-ready costs (tree clearing and necessary pole replacement) forecast by MTI were significantly understated, making the potential cost overrun a huge financial risk to taxpayers.”
It said MTI’s loss of its key contact person and system designer put the whole internet infrastructure project in jeopardy.
The municipality said it has now finalized a new contract with Eagle Telecom that will be approximately $3,000,000 less expensive than the MTI contract on the per-kilometre cost for fibre build and engineering. The municipality’s consulting engineers, Hatch Ltd., met with NSPI and negotiated with Eagle Telecom and advised the county that a realistic estimate to build the entire internet infrastructure project is less than $18,000,000.
The fibre-optic internet project is now back within budget, the county said, and work has already started on the pole surveys.
Eagle Telecom has built more than 250,000 kms of fibre optic cable. Construction will begin this fall, with the county saying more information will be released shortly.
