The federal government is spending $ 55 million on two companies to install high-speed optical internet to connect about 11,000 households.
Toronto-based Rogers Communications Inc. will receive part of the funding, while Woodstock-based Xplornet Communications Inc. will receive another part. No breakdown was provided of how much each company should receive.
Goody Hutchings, the Federal Minister for Rural Economic Development, made the announcement Friday morning at a press conference in Miramichi, which was scarce in detail.
The minister said the communities where the money would be used were on a “huge” list. The CBC requested the list, but it has not yet been provided.
“This is not a big project for each of the supporters, there are different projects to connect these homes that we connect today, and each is a little different,” Hutchings said.
Part of the goal of a federal connection
Funding through the $ 2.75 billion Universal Broadband Fund is part of a commitment by 98 percent of Canadian households to be connected to 50 megabits per second download speed and 10 to upload by 2026.
The federal government has set a second target of 100 percent by 2030.
Hutchings said the Liberal government has spent $ 43 million to connect 66,000 households in New Brunswick since 2015.
The actual cost of servicing 10,802 households in New Brunswick is unclear. Both Rodgers and Xplornet will spend more on government funding, but no figures have been released.
“We are happy to work with Minister Hutchings to bring fiber to homes, a gigabit high-speed Internet service in rural New Brunswickers,” said Jeff Burlock, executive vice president and co-founder of Xplornet.
Matthew McLellan, president of the Atlantic region for Rodgers, left, and Jeff Burlock, co-founder of Xplornet, watch the press conference in Miramichi. (Mike Heanan / CBC)
Burlock said the company, owned by New York-based private investment firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners since 2020, is already working with the federal government to connect more than 63,000 homes in the province to high-speed Internet.
Matthew McLellan, president of the Atlantic Region for Rodgers, also said he would use the funding to install fiber in various locations, which will be 2.5 gigabits up and 2.5 gigabits down.
Hutchings said that even with the costs announced so far, there will still be about 24,000 households in New Brunswick that do not have high-speed Internet.
The minister said that “negotiations” for future funding continue with Rodgers and Xplornet to serve these households.
“My goal is to connect all of Canada, and by working with Rodgers and Xplornet, we will connect all of New Brunswick,” Hutchings said.
Hutchings said the companies were selected after an application process that looked at things like the equipment to be used, whether the network infrastructure could be upgraded later to offer higher speeds, accessibility and connectivity zones that still they have no service.
It was not part of the provincial funding announcement.
Shortly after the announcement, a Bell Aliant spokesman sent a statement to the CBC on Tuesday, saying it would expand its online service to more than 25 communities in New Brunswick through a Bell-funded program.
A company spokesman said the areas were already served by slower internet.
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