Huron County's representative on the Western Warden's SWIFT committee presented his report to county council Wednesday.
Roger Watt, a councillor for Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh, was named to the committee by council because of his almost 40 years of work in IT at the University of Waterloo.
The big issue for Huron County in the project to bring broadband service to all of Southwestern Ontario is that Huron already has many of the benefits the project would bring as a result of the work of local internet service providers.
But Watt points out there is still no guarantee Huron would get what it doesn't have -- service for that last mile and the very remote homes.
Watt told council he's still optimistic a compromise could be reached that would see the interests of local providers protected. He believes Huron needs both the network that SWIFT would bring as well as last-mile connectivity.
Watt also explained the local providers would be allowed to bid on the RFPs sent out by SWIFT, but adds there's no guarantee they'd be successful.
In the end, Watt believes the county has to invest in both the SWIFT project and in its local providers, explaining the SWIFT funding that will be available to motivate local build-outs is not nearly near enough to cover their costs and the locals have said they have been available to work out how to fill existing gaps.
