Province earmarks $2.5M for cellphone towers, but no one has signed on to use them

P.E.I.'s capital budget has allocated $2.5 million to build up to five provincially owned cellphone towers, but so far no telecommunications companies have committed to using them.

Finance Minister Jill Burridge said Thursday that the province would go it alone on building the towers, given the poor state of signals in some parts of P.E.I., and would work with service providers to get them to affix infrastructure onto them.

She said there has not been any discussion of whether companies would pay to use the structure, or whether such fees would ultimately be passed on and show up on Islanders' cellphone bills.

"Those conversations need to be had," Burridge said. "We just know that something had to get rolling here because we do have so many gaps in our service."

Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Trade Cory Deagle said in an interview on Friday that the government decided to build its own towers after officials from major telecommunications companies said they weren't interested in adding such infrastructure.

"In those meetings we've had with them, part of the issue that they've told us is, 'Well, there's really not a business case for us to invest here.' We're a very small player in this," said Deagle. 

He added that he's personally spoken with representatives from Telus, calling them positive meetings and saying there is indeed "early stages" of interest in provincially funded and constructed towers.  

"[We're] having good conversations with the companies," he said.

Driving around to document gaps

Deagle said he is not sure how many towers would be built or where they will be placed. He said the department is gathering information on where the worst gaps in service are, and he hopes to have that in hand by the end of November.

"What they're doing is literally going across the Island, driving across the Island, finding out where those cellular gaps are across P.E.I. to see where the biggest need is," the minister said.

Despite what he's hearing from Islanders, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and telecommunications companies like Telus and Bell are saying there is not a huge lack of coverage on P.E.I., Deagle said.  

The minister said the province isn't getting any support from the federal government, P.E.I.'s population is increasing, and calls going through existing towers are only going to increase, especially as fewer people with cellphones want to pay a separate bill for a land line.

"It's a public safety concern. So I think there has to come a point where the provincial government has to step up and help address the issue and find the best way to do it, working with the telecommunications companies," he said.