Bell has pulled out of a project to bring high-speed Internet and cell service to six remote communities along Labrador’s north coast, citing rising costs and difficult terrain.
The $22-million Labrador North Wireless Broadband Project, announced in 2022, was meant to connect more than 1,000 households in communities including Nain and Natuashish. But the price tag has since ballooned to $110 million, despite federal and provincial funding boosts.
Divide that total budget by, say, 1,000 homes and that works out to $110,000 per home.
“This is a significant setback,” said David Dicker Jr. of the Nunatsiavut Government. “Reliable internet isn’t a luxury—it’s essential.”
Bell said costs have increased 340% since 2021, making the project unworkable. It will wind down work and exit under the terms of its agreement.
Chief John Nui of Mushuau Innu First Nation said the community was stunned. “We’ve been waiting years. It’s dead in the water now,” he told CBC News.
Senior communications manager Geoff Higdon from Bell said the cost increase of 340 per cent over four years resulted in the project being unfeasible.
“Due to unsustainable cost increases … and significant logistical hurdles presented by the challenging geography, Bell has made the difficult decision to withdraw from the planned fixed wireless network project,” Higdon wrote.
Given the region’s harsh geography, satellite-based options like SpaceX’s Starlink may now offer the most realistic path forward. At $110,000 per home, that works out to 65 years of Starlink coverage at $140 per month.
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Canada must stop investing in oligarchical corporations. At this point crown corporations would have been a better investment. Canadians have to acknowledge that Bell is building out in America now. This corporation needs to be broken up.
I would really like to see a breakdown of what accounts for this 340% increase in costs over 4 years. It would shed some light on what the problem is, rather than just referring to them as "costs". 340% seems very difficult to understand.