Internet speed petition

Jeff Green | Jan 20, 2021

Frontenac County has been working with the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) on “the gig project” a long-term project aimed at providing very high speed Internet – 1,000 megabits per second to residents throughout Frontenac County.

Meanwhile some residents are concerned with their short term need for reliable Internet for their families, children doing remote learning, and work-related needs.

Rob Oatway lives just south of Sydenham, metres away from neighbours who receive high speed service via a fiber cable to the home through Eastlink. At the home he shares with his wife and two young children, Eastlnk services are not available, so they get service from Xplornet from a tower signal to a receiver on their roof, which he says is slower and less reliable that the Eastlink fiber service.

Oatway has approached Eastlink about service, to no avail.

“I put some posts out on the What’s Happening Facebook pages for South, Central, and North Frontenac about Internet service, and the responses show there are a lot of people who have very unreliable service, much worse than ours,” he said.

He has started an online petition, through Change.org. which is aimed at convincing companies to expand their services to deal with the hit or miss reality that he has learned is common throughout Frontenac County.

The Change-org petition says:

“We, the persons signing this petition are requesting that large companies like Bell Canada and EastLink (and/or others) review their high speed/fibre-optic Internet coverage areas and expand their currently available internet services to cover more residents within the rural areas of [Frontenac County]”

Otway has also sent a letter to members of Council throughout Frontenac County asking for municipal support for local residents. Councillors Sutherland and Morey from South Frontenac have contacted him, as has Councillor Cameron from Central Frontenac.

To access the petition, go to www.change.org/fast-and-reliable-rural-internet-for-frontenac-county