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Ariss farmer providing internet to neighbourhood furious with government stepping in (4 photos)

Philip Mullis says paying a private company where he was going to do it for free is a waste of taxpayer money

An Ariss farmer is furious with the provincial government’s decision to step in and provide high-speed internet to rural communities when he has already been doing that for the past two years in Ariss.

“We want them to stop,” said Philip Mullis about SWIFT, a government-funded non-profit regional broadband project with a plan to achieve a $209-million broadband expansion plan that enhances access to high-speed connectivity in eligible funding areas across Southwestern Ontario. 

Mullis said it makes no sense for the provincial and federal government to pay for service in an area in which many are already getting high-speed internet. 

“At the end of the day, they should only be going into the areas that are not taken care of,” said Mullis adding that it is a complete waste of money to provide internet to rural areas tended to by local private companies. 

Mullis is the owner of Wireless Farm, a local service provider in Wellington County. He said when he first moved to Ariss four years ago, he was so frustrated with the quality of service that he decided to take the matter in his own hands.

So he put $100,000 of his own money over time, bought fibre optic cable and the equipment required to install it, built an 80-foot tower for wireless internet, installed several kilometres of fibre optic wire in farm fields and extended his service of high-speed internet to neighbours.

In the process, he also met with Arnold Stoll, the owner of Avetria Networks, who partnered with him on this project. The two had one clear goal: to provide affordable high-speed internet to the residents of Ariss without using any taxpayer money. 

He said it took two years of discussion with the township to get access to the water tower on Wellington 38.

Mullis said the area of Ariss consists of nearly 390 homes and will increase and he’s willing to provide high-speed internet to all the businesses and homes in the entire area. 

“We got nearly 100 customers right on our wireless and they’re all getting fantastic service,” said Mullis adding that each customer gets 100Mpps internet service when SWIFT is offering internet speeds of at least 50/10 Mbps, or greater.

“They were waiting for SWIFT to do something and SWIFT never did anything so it finally got to the point saying 'hey you know even though I’m a private resident, I’m not asking for money, I just want to start getting people better internet. I’ll pay for it myself. Let’s do this,'” said Mullis. 

Mullis and Stoll said they met with representatives from SWIFT last fall, showed them their project, their maps, their equipment, the towers they built and their plans for the area telling them they have it all under control. 

Last week, SWIFT announced a total of $7.5 million in provincial and federal funding to support four broadband infrastructure projects across 15 underserved communities within Wellington County. Mullis and Stoll were not happy. 

“They’ve seen my map, they’ve seen my suppliers, they’ve seen everything.  It’s like a personal flip off,” said Mullis. 

“Don’t spend government money and taxpayer money on an area that two private companies are going to do for free.” 

GuelphToday contacted SWIFT and they confirmed that they did meet with Mullis in order to evaluate his capabilities in October of last year. 

“Mr. Mullis was unable to demonstrate with any degree of certainty that he would be successful in his desire to deploy a fibre-to-the-home network in the area,” said SWIFT communications manager Mellisa O’Brien in an email. 

O’Brien confirmed that no funding was awarded in the area that the time of the meeting and no assurance was provided to Mullis that SWIFT would not fund projects in the area in the future. 

She said at the time of the meeting SWIFT was in the process of completing their due diligence to investigate the claim that Wireless Farm was planning to construct a fibre-to-the-home in the area adding that the area disputed by Mullis is only a portion of the project approved for SWIFT funding. 

“The approved project includes nearly 700 premises in Ariss, Ponsonby and Inverhaugh,” said O’Brien. 

Mullis says it makes sense for a small company to pay for rural areas who are willingly offering free labour and time. He says it costs them $3,000 to run fibre optic cable wire across one kilometre whereas larger companies are likely spending around $100,000 per km and charging SWIFT, which is taxpayer money. 

“That makes sense for areas that have lots of houses, but if you don’t have lots of houses, you’re paying money for no reason,” said Stoll saying that he is not driven by money and wants to provide and install approximately 50km of fibre optic cable for the area of Ariss for free. 

“Here are two private companies that are prepared to deploy this network right here which is larger than they one SWIFT is funding,” said Stoll adding that at the end of the day, its the customers in rural areas who end up paying more to companies subsidized by SWIFT. 


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Anam Khan

About the Author: Anam Khan

Anam Khan is a journalist who covers numerous beats in Guelph and Wellington County that include politics, crime, features, environment and social justice
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