Online | About 10% of rural areas don't have access to affordable broadband

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By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN
llewellyn.stephen@dailygleaner.com

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The provincial government will announce plans Monday to extend high-speed Internet to all parts of rural New Brunswick.

But the Opposition is questioning why the government waited until after the legislature adjourned for Christmas before making the statement.

"It is odd that they would have a hastily called media scrum in the lobby of the Centennial Building," said Jack Carr, Tory MLA for New Maryland-Sunbury West.

Carr, who campaigned in a byelection this fall on the importance of high-speed Internet in rural areas, said the government promised an action plan to implement the communication service in 2010.

"I have my doubts that there will be much announced," he said.

"We will have to wait and see."

Business New Brunswick Minister Greg Byrne has invited the media to meet him in the lobby of the main government office building in Fredericton on Monday at 11 a.m.

Premier Shawn Graham promised to announce the government's plan to extend high-speed Internet to all parts of rural New Brunswick in a speech to the Fredericton North Rotary Club on Oct. 22.

"In 2008, we understand that infrastructure is more than roads and water," he said at the time. "It's communications infrastructure like high-speed Internet."

When the Liberals took power in 2006, 90 per cent of New Brunswick had access to high-speed Internet at an affordable price. The Liberals promised to close that gap by the end of their first mandate.

The former Tory government said extending the service to that last 10 per cent wasn't economically possible. Media reports at the time stated it would have cost $150 million.

High-speed Internet is available in rural areas, but it usually requires a satellite dish and is much more expensive than in more urban areas.

According to information Carr received through a tabling motion during this fall's session of the legislature, some parts of rural New Brunswick have far less access to high-speed Internet than others.

In Queens County, which includes Gagetown, information from the 2006 census shows 56 per cent of homes and 31 per cent of businesses didn't have access to high-speed Internet.

The next worst area was Kent County, in the Richibucto area, where 35 per cent of homes and 18 per cent of businesses didn't have broadband access.

In York County, which includes Fredericton, eight per cent of homes and three per cent of businesses didn't have access to high-speed Internet.

In Sunbury County, which includes Oromocto, 14 per cent of homes and seven per cent of businesses didn't have access to the service.