STEPHEN RICCIO
SHEENBORO Sept. 16, 2020
Internet connections have been more spotty than usual in Sheenboro, especially for those who get service from the tower on Brennan’s Hill, resulting in several days worth of . . .
collective outages throughout the summer.
Joann McCann, owner of a cottage in the area, said she thinks there have been five to six days over the last two months where she hasn’t been able to access the internet.
When the internet is working, McCann said her download speed is sometimes insufficient to download a PDF file.
She said that internet service was fairly reliable before COVID-19, but the last couple months of working from home have been frustrating, and the frustration hasn’t been aided by what she describes as Maskatel’s inaction.
Maskatel is the telecommunications company that owns the towers in the area and is based in Saint-Hyacinthe. The fibre-optic network is operated by the company Picanoc, but Maskatel runs the call centre and makes decisions in the partnership.
“When we had an outage on a Tuesday, they didn’t get [to the tower] until late Wednesday,” McCann explained. “There’s this kind of callous disregard for customer service, which I’m kind of surprised how bad it is.”
She said that Maskatel has apologized for residents’ inconvenience in the service outages and slow speed, and that they have offered people disconnection free of charge.
“I’ve asked to speak to a supervisor, one supervisor called me back and left a message saying I would get a credit. I never got the credit.”
McCann pointed out that with COVID-19 forcing many people to work from home as she does, the MRC should prioritize finding a solution, as better internet would attract people to live in remote areas of the Pontiac.
Rural internet issues have been a point of concern for both residents and local politicians. In June, Connexion Fibre Picanoc (CFP), a non-profit corporation created by the MRC’s Pontiac and Vallée de la Gatineau and two school boards, submitted an internet infrastructure proposal seeking grant funding to the CRTC.
The $57.5 million plus project calls on the CRTC and the Quebec Ministry of Economy and Innovation to fund, through the Broadband Fund, a grant of $40 million.
CFP currently operates 500 km of fibre-optic cables, and with this plan they hope to build 3,000 km more to connect 6,788 residents across more than 35 municipalities to high-speed internet.
According to MRC Pontiac Communications Advisor Colleen Jones, the CRTC informed the MRC’s that they will inform them on the status of this proposal by the end of the year. Jones also said the implementation period for the project upon funding approval would be three years.
