Erin’s hills may not be alive with the Sound of Music, but apparently they cause challenges for wireless service providers.
On June 21, councillors here heard from representatives of XPlorenet regarding the installation of a communications tower.
Although representatives Bob Clermont and Nic Palmer were late for the public meeting slated for 7:15pm, council altered its agenda to allow them to speak before them later in the meeting.
The site is at 5649 Wellington Road 26 / RR4 Rockwood near Ospringe.
There is no tower currently on that property, but there are several towers in the area, Clermont said.
“What we’re doing is building a 45 metre tall communications tower to enhance the high speed internet service into the county.”
He explained XPlorenet won the request for proposal to provide the service.
Clermont said Wellington County had identified the area as underserviced – where there is very little – if any internet service.
Mayor Lou Maieron said there has always been a lack of service on 22 Sideroad heading north and east.
Even prior to election, Maieron said that for months both he and the previous Erin mayor had asked how the situation would be addressed.
“Is this going to solve that?” he asked.
Clermont clarified this tower only serves a specific area – not Erin village itself.
He noted one of the original ideas was to install equipment on the Erin water tower, “but it isn’t high enough.”
“Even though it is on a bit of a hill, it literally doesn’t do what we need it to do.”
Maieron commented “we have a really nice hill at Moonshine Mountain.”
When Clermont asked for the location, he was told it was on the 27th Sideroad between the 4th and 5th Line.
Councillor Josie Wintersinger commented that while it wasn’t close to Erin, it was close to Hillsburgh.
“What we’ve been trying to do, is fill in the voids of service,” Maieron said.
While there are services to the urban areas, there is not so much in the rural areas, he explained.
“We’re a highly populated rural township. Half of our population is not located in the urban centres. In comparison to a more rural area like Mapleton, I think you will get more customers because there are more 1 acre and 10 acre lots through the town.”
Maieron saw a void of service to the south of village of Erin and north of Hillsburgh.
Clermont described the challenges presented by the terrain of hills and valleys.
Councillor Wintersinger said she is an XPlorenet customer and said she has issues with the speed.
Clermont quickly stated what is being proposed is not the same system.
Wintersinger then asked if current customers would be able to access the improved system.
Clermont said it depended on where she lived.
“Near Moonshine Mountain,” Wintersinger said.
“Ah, the ulterior motive,” Clermont chuckled.
He added that once he had the address, he’d let her know whether the current proposal would affect her service or not.
Councillor Barb Tocher asked what are the tower would service.
Clermont estimated that it would serve a five kilometre radius from the tower.
While there is a Bell tower and a Telus tower, “we can’t get onto them.”
But finding properties to put a tower on is equally challenging, he added.
“There’s a lot of people who absolutely want to have high speed internet in their homes, but there’s a whole pile of people who don’t want to see a tower.”
Maieron was curious why there could not be a sharing of existing towers.
Palmer added “It would cost us more to be on the Bell Canada tower than for us to build our own – yearly.”
Maieron thanked them for the explanation commenting that Wellington County had worked with OMAFRA to bring broadband service to rural areas.
“We’ve been working hard to make sure that our municipality gets our fair share.”
He again pointed to various areas of the rural area which could use service.
Clermont asked if these were areas marked out by the county as part of the proposal.
He added that XPlorenet is working now to close in those voids of service.
Clermont noted there are certain areas that Wellington County wanted dealt with first. The next step will be to fill in the holes of service, he said.
“The problem with a 150 foot tower is that there are a limited number of hills I can put the tower because there might be a hill in between locations which is much taller and the signal cannot get through.”
Clermont said the 150 foot towers are cost effective, “but when you get into certain types of areas like this – if I could put in a 500-foot tower I’d lose [the interference] from those hills really fast and get into the shadows.”
Councillor later agreed to provide a letter of concurrence to the tower proposal.
