Rural Haldimand residents say getting affordable internet a struggle

Paying $2,000 to install a 21-metre tower in their yard was actually the cheapest way for the Money family to get home internet.

Before that, our only option was satellite, or the rocket hub, which is the same as what your cell phone would use," said Sarah Money.

Because the family's rural property outside of Cayuga is full of tall trees, they needed the tower for line of sight before they could switch over to LTE internet service, which Money said is cheaper and a bit faster than what they had before.

Still, I was pretty ticked about (it) ... I shouldn't have to do this; I should have access to decent internet without paying $2,000 to put up a tower."

Even with the faster service, when Money was teaching online and had to post a video, she would have to start the upload in the afternoon the day before for it to be done by the next morning.

I teach in Hamilton where we have fast internet, which makes home so frustrating, since I know what's available in other places," she said.

Jean Bethune, another rural resident outside of Cayuga, also has to rely on a tower for home internet.

While her husband is retired, she works from home part-time.

For work, it's been not too bad. But we do a lot of web surfing ... sometimes, it's OK; sometimes it's painfully slow," Bethune said.

Still, it's better than the dial up connection they had when they first moved in.

Now that was horrible," she said.

They thought they might have a chance to improve their service when they saw that fibre optic lines were being installed along their road. They requested a quote, and were told that the company would pay for the first 40 metres onto their property, but after that, they would be charged $12 per metre, Bethune said.

With their driveway measuring in at over 370 m according to GPS mapping, it would cost around $4,000 just to get the line to their home.

Bethune said long driveways are normal in the country, and this puts a lot of extra cost on rural residents.

On top of that, she said they were told they'd have to commit to a connection agreement for a two-year term with a minimum service charge of $115 per month.

What a crock," she said. If that is considered affordable high-speed internet, I'd love to see what they consider unreasonable."

Recently, the provincial government announced that it was providing funding to connect over 650 homes in the Featherstone area to high-speed internet.

The money came through the Improving Connectivity for Ontario program; municipalities and internet service providers are both eligible to apply. This particular project was proposed by Bell Canada.

Hayley Cooper, press secretary for Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma, said, the provincial government has committed to connect every region of Ontario to high-speed internet by the end of 2025.

When asked about the quotes rural residents had been given to connect to fibre optic lines, Cooper said the funding program is designed to address capital barriers that prevent private investment in their networks. We expect that recipients will provide affordable services to customers at rates comparable to nearby large municipalities."

She also noted that the telecommunications sector - including internet service - is federally regulated, and that The CRTC has a role to play to help ensure affordability and set standards for licensed service providers."

Money doesn't expect fibre optic service to be available to her home any time soon.

When they're talking about putting it in rural communities, from what I've seen, they're talking about the actual towns ... not for the people who are out in the country."

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With the province investing in rural high-speed internet infrastructure, we wanted to know how residents in those areas find their current connection.