Huron County Economic Development Officer, Alex Ripley, brought county council up to date on the connectivity to broadband in the county at Wednesday’s meeting.

Ripley says they’re doing quite well in connecting Huron County homes to the service and he points out, we’re very lucky to have good local partners.

“I think we’re very fortunate to have good local partners in the form of our telcos (telecom companies). All of the local telecommunications companies, they’ve risen to the occasion and they’ve been involved with great projects through SWIFT and the Universal Broadband Fund.”

Ripley says it’s very difficult to say exactly where they are today because it’s a matter of when the line gets to the house.

“It’s a matter of when the line gets to the house, the house gets connected. So that number is changing every day. What I can say is that when all of the UBF and all of the SWIFT projects are done, which will be in about two years time, at that point we’ll be looking at 97 per cent coverage.”

Ripley says, for comparison purposes, as recently as two years ago, that number was at eighty per cent. He also points out that as the technology improves, it becomes easier to get to the three percent that won’t be connected in the next two years.