Canada’s federal government announced CAD55 million (USD44 million) in funding to bring high speed fixed internet to an additional 11,000 rural homes throughout New Brunswick, with the rollouts to be implemented by Rogers Communications and Xplornet. A press release from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) shows a list of 249 communities and locations covered by the funding, adding that to date the Government of Canada has already invested more than CAD43 million in New Brunswick to connect over 10,000 rural homes in the province.
In a separate federal-provincial partnership, ISED reported that an investment of up to CAD20 million will fund projects in Prince Edward Island (PEI) to achieve the goal of connecting every underserved home in rural communities throughout the province to high speed internet. Approximately 2,000 PEI homes which remain without broadband access will be targeted by the projects. 95% of the province should be connected by 2023 and 100% by 2025. In addition to this partnership, the federal government has awarded CAD1.5 million in immediate funding to Xplornet and Island Telecom to cover around 1,000 PEI homes in 56 rural communities (Xplornet was allocated CAD884,000 for 790 homes; Island Telecom CAD693,000 for 256 homes).
Canada’s Connectivity Strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to internet speeds of at least 50Mbps download/10Mbps upload. The Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) is a CAD2.75 billion investment by the Government of Canada designed to help connect 98% of Canadians to high speed internet by 2026 and achieve the national target of 100% connectivity by 2030.