Pictou County’s push to build its own internet network faces delays as cost hits $95M

Marc Hanna was excited about the Municipality of Pictou County’s in-house rural internet project when he first heard about it six years ago.

But the high-speed fibre connection he’s been waiting for has taken too long, he said.

To escape slow speeds in “internet hell,” Hanna switched to Starlink’s satellite service in 2020, and he said he’s unlikely to make the switch when the local project is finally completed.

“Now that we already have solutions, it seems like it’s just redundant,” he said.

After years of discussions, Pictou County started an ambitious project in 2020 to provide cheaper high-speed internet to residents and build a piece of key infrastructure for the municipality. The goal is to delivering both wireless service on towers they own or share, and hard-wired fibre internet, to more than 100 rural communities in the county.

The plan is to start with about 4,700 customers in under-served areas before expanding to cover most of the county.

The project is the only one of its kind in Nova Scotia, with the rest of the province getting rural internet through provincial Crown corporation Build Nova Scotia alongside providers like Bell and Eastlink.  

Hanna said his in-laws in neighbouring Guysborough County have already gotten their fibre connection this way. As of this October, Build Nova Scotia said 89,400 homes and businesses have been connected through the Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative, or satellite internet rebate, since 2018. The rebate can cover up to $1,000 of start-up costs.

Meanwhile the Pictou County project is taking longer and costing millions more than originally expected.

County council heard in November that it will take until 2027 to finish connect the first 4,700 homes to high-speed fibre, including Hanna’s family home south of Westville. However, the 17 wireless towers will be finished by the end of this year and some of those customers will be eligible for that service.

Representatives of Digital Ubiquity, the company handling the internet project for the municipality, told council on Nov. 6 that the price tag had risen to about $95 million.

“The cost is really just unbelievable. I really can’t imagine how the municipality will ever make their money back,” Hanna said.

“You could buy every man, woman and child in Pictou County a Starlink and it’d only cost you like $7 or $8 million.”

Other levels of government are footing half the bill. The federal government announced $31.7 million in late 2022, saying that it could take up to 2025 to finish the fibre work. It also invested $4.5 million in the wireless towers. The province chipped in $10.6 million this year.

Brian Cullen, the county’s chief administrative officer, said the municipality will take on around $50 million in debt for the project and has spent $28 million so far.

In an interview, Cullen said the project’s costs have gone up to account for expanding past the first 4,700 customers. Eventually, the network could reach 9,000 homes with fibre and 3,000 with wireless, Cullen said.

As of November, Cullen said they’ve hit about 18 per cent adoption among the first 4,700 customers, which is on target.

“We’re not at a point that our alarm bells are going off for us,” he said.

The goal is to get at least 40 per cent of the 12,000 Pictou County homes in the service area on board, Cullen said, which would be “sustainable” for the municipality and economically beneficial. 

“We’re building a long-term, really a generational asset, and I think from our standpoint it’s a good investment for us,” Cullen said.

Warden Robert Parker said it’s important to remember municipal taxpayer money isn’t directly involved in the project since it’s being funded by debt, and future revenue could ensure property taxes remain low.

“Nothing ever goes as fast or as smooth as you’d like it to, but we’re still on track,” Parker said.

However, Hanna said that fibre is no longer considered cutting-edge technology, given the rise of satellite internet. He pays $170 for Starlink and expects the price to go down as other companies launch their own services.

“I would expect that we’ll need some sort of bailout in the future, and we’ll have this asset that, you know, will just depreciate in value as technology emerges,” Hanna said.

At the meeting on Nov. 6, more than one councillor questioned how the project’s expected cost had jumped by around $25 million.

Mike Richard, of Digital Ubiquity, said the project’s delays were largely due to waiting for Nova Scotia Power and the province for permits and permissions to do work.

Cullen said the county’s debt should be paid off in 20 years. After that, Digital Ubiquity said the municipality could pocket between $5 million and $7 million a year.

Parker said their open-access network allows them to rent space to outside internet providers, and their system allows for cheaper packages while still delivering high-quality service.

The prices range from $50 for 25 mbps to $65-$80 for 300 mbps.

Both Parker and Cullen said they don’t see satellite internet as competition, but a helpful way to fill the gaps where their system won’t reach.