The other day, I saw a surveyor measuring the extent of my acreage from the outer edges. I wasn’t too concerned. It could be for a future road upgrade or something in the area. I was curious, though, and made some inquiries. It turns out that the area is being surveyed for a potential broadband internet provider, and they were checking home locations for potential relays. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Our community has had companies come and go, offering new internet systems almost annually since I moved to the country 14 years ago. None of them came to fruition for a number of reasons.So why do these companies keep doing this? Because taxpayers are getting soaked by them through government high-speed internet schemes.My wife and I understood that we would be sacrificing some conveniences when we chose to move out of the city, and that ready access to high-speed internet options would be one of them. There was a local broadband provider that offered a service which was marginally better than dial-up, and their support system was on par with your typical phone provider. Which is to say, terrible.The Telus Hub came about, and we switched to it. For a little while, it provided better home service than the local broadband provider. As all of our neighbours switched to hubs, though, the tower became overwhelmed, and the hub became useless..Finally, in 2021, we heard that Starlink satellite internet service would become available in our area. We put ourselves on a waiting list and spent $750 for the hardware. It took a year before the service arrived, but when it did, it was a true game-changer. We had ready access to service far superior to any local options. Since then, the speeds have increased, and the costs have come down. There is no longer a waiting list, and a person can get a dish for a couple of hundred dollars. Now, nearly every home in our area has a Starlink dish on the roof. The rural internet service issue had been solved.Not willing to let a good but slow-moving concept go to waste, the federal and provincial governments are still blowing a billion dollars to bring outdated technology to rural homes throughout the province.I understand that fibre-optic internet provides faster service than satellite does, but it is only feasible in areas where there is a degree of home density. Running lines out to rural homes costs a fortune. Not only is the government plan sinking a fortune into fibre-optic lines, but it is subsidizing broadband services which are even worse than satellite. Nobody is going to switch to these services, but the taxpayers get to pay for the hardware all the same.In my area, the latest government-funded, proposed internet provision incarnation is called Mage Networks. They have been given $4,421,520 tax dollars to service a potential 695 homes. That will cost around $6,400 per home to offer broadband service that only a handful of homes will take up. Did I mention that everybody has already invested in Starlink? It doesn’t matter when the government backstops your venture, though.It gets much worse in other areas. In the County of Forty Mile, wireless service will be set up to cover 81 homes at a cost of $30,555 each. Again, most of the homes out there went with Starlink years ago, plus they have good cellular service already..Up North, fibre optic cables will be run to service 303 homes at a cost of $19,000 per home. The operation will be run by the Woodland Cree First Nation. I can’t imagine what may go wrong.There is duplication as well. While Mage is getting millions to provide service to my area, Xplore is getting $4,655,676 to cover our area, too. Did I mention that everybody already has satellite service?The list goes on and on. Service to the Slave Lake area for $37,000 per household. Whitecourt area for $25,375 per household. Clearwater County for $32,647 per household. Check out the full list here.Government programs move too slowly in all regards. They will never be able to keep up with technology.Even if internet service were some sort of human right that taxpayers should be obligated to fund, they should be doing so through the most cost-effective means possible. They could put a Starlink dish on every house for $200 each and be done with it. They could have it done in under a year at that..Over 95% of the province already has full service. There is no need to spend a billion dollars to provide it to the tiny remainder who have mostly already switched to Starlink anyway.These new providers will go bust. I know I certainly won’t be giving up my satellite service for some new, crappy wireless provider whenever it may finally become active, nor will my neighbours. They may as well be stringing more cable for telephone land lines.When people ask, “What could the government cut?” here is a very easy program to hit.Of course, they won’t, though, and it’s for the same old reason. Some well-connected folks who got the contracts for this program will be getting very rich from it.
