Huron County council has decided to waive their refund from the SWIFT program after hearing a presentation from the representative on the SWIFT committee.
Under the SWIFT agreement with the fifteen Southwestern Ontario county's involved in the program, Huron could have requested a refund of about 340-thousand dollars.
But Roger Watt explained, by requesting the refund, Huron would lose out on an additional 635-thousand dollars in funding that would be used for additional broadband development in Huron County.
Watt pointed out the total SWIFT funding simply isn't enough to complete broadband to every home in Southwestern Ontario, and in Huron County, there will still be some gaps, so the less money they spend, the bigger those gaps will be.
“The consequence of doing it is that if we ask for that 340-thousand whatever it is, dollars back, we'd be losing 635-thousand dollars in money that could be spent in Huron County for additional broadband development.”
Watt says the extra funding will address what has been referred to as deliver of service to the last mile, or homes too far down a concession to make that delivery profitable. He suggests the way that service would be delivered over areas that would probably have a low subscriber rate, over a large ares that could be woodlands or wet lands, would be be using cell phone towers, so he says every cent that county can get in supported development funds is important.
“The total SWIFT funding simply isn't enough to complete broadband to the home everywhere in Southwestern Ontario, and in Huron County, there's still gonna be some gaps, so the less money we spend, the bigger the gaps are gonna be. Doesn't make any sense to me to forgo 635-thousand dollars of opportunity just to get 340-thousand back.”
