Lambton County is trying to decide how it can help get ultra-high speed Internet access throughout the county.

It has been long recognized there are pockets of the county, including St. Clair Township, where reliable Internet access isn’t possible. The situation was made worse recently when Bell Canada dumped a program which served south Lambton including Dawn-Euphemia so it could offer more cellular service.

The Western Warden’s Conference has been championing a project called SWIFT. It’s goal is to have municipalities in southern Ontario work together to set up a fibre-optic network throughout the region at a starting cost of $290 million. Lambton’s share of that would be about a million dollars.

But independent internet providers say the SWIFT project is duplicating much of what is already available in Lambton County. The problem is not, they say, putting the network together, it is getting the internet to the door of homes in remote communities.

They say money would be better spent doing that.

All this has left councillors confused. So a public meeting is being held next Tuesday to talk about the possiblities and what would be best for Lambton County.

The SWIFT project will be explained and the independent operators and public will also have a chance to speak.

The meeting starts at 7 pm at the Lion Hall in Wyoming.