The
Chronicle Herald has another article on this. In it one of the county councilors (or similar) says that the tower can be avoided by 2 kms of cable, something I find highly unlikely for a number of reasons. This ignores the point of the tower, which is to provide ubiquitous and
cheap high bandwidth (I'm talking at least 10Mbps) internet to 99% of the population of Nova Scotia. Around a third of the population lives in the capital area, which along with other urban areas in the province has easy access to high-speed internet. However, nearly half of the provincial population is rural or very rural or extremely rural (like half an hour down a dirt road from just a corner store rural). Now some of these areas have access to digital cable and therefore cable internet (hell, some can even pull a decent DSL connection), and therefore, the towers are not needed. In Victoria Harbour, however, which is 30 km (straight line) from the closest town that could be reasonably classified as urban, is not one of those locations. The cost for Eastlink to ensure that the cable to every house (if it exists in the first place) is capable of carrying the higher bandwidth required for internet would be prohibitive to begin with, not to even mention replacing old and stringing new cable. The tower makes much more economic sense, as the costs associated are stringing one cable (which may already be in place) and erecting the damn thing. This also ignores the fact that many other such towers have been erected in primarily agricultural areas of the province with no ill effect. Some of you may have already eaten blueberries grown not 50 meters from one such tower. Okay, maybe not, but the point still stands. This one farmer doesn't understand the science, let alone the economic benefits to the area, behind the tower. I really hope Industry Canada overrules Kings County Council.