By Brian Handrigan on Friday, 05 August 2022
Category: Industry News

Ontario issues eight ISPs CAD1.25bn to connect 266,000 premises in 339 municipalities

The Ontario government yesterday (4 August 2022) issued funding contracts worth CAD1.25 billion (USD975 million) to eight ISPs to expand high speed fixed broadband internet access to 266,000 unserved and underserved homes and businesses in 339 municipalities across the Canadian province by end-2025. The project forms part of the near-CAD4 billion 'Ontario Connects' programme which aims to achieve 100% high speed internet access in the province by end-2025. The providers for the latest rollouts were selected through a two-stage competitive process overseen by Infrastructure Ontario which began in summer 2021. Funding was issued as follows:

The highest-value contract winner, Bell Canada, noted in a separate press release that the 82,000-plus premises covered by its new provincial government funding would be served with 'up to 3Gbps' fibre connections, whilst announcing that Bell will additionally self-fund fibre deployment to another 37,000 homes and businesses in the vicinity of this rollout. The second-placed contractor in monetary terms, Xplornet, announced that the 98 rural municipalities covered by its new funding in eastern, central and southwestern Ontario would receive either fibre broadband (71 municipalities) or 'fibre-powered 5G wireless broadband' (27 municipalities), while indicating that adjacent areas could also benefit from its 5G services. Note that ISPs refer to the Ontario Connects rollout scheme as the Accelerated High Speed Internet Programme (AHSIP).

Thanks to TeleGeography for this industry update.

Leave Comments