ESSEX COUNTY – Several small communities outside of Windsor, Ontario, will start to see better broadband next year.
Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) on Friday announced it has awarded contracts to expand broadband services to 5,173 households and businesses across 20 communities in Essex County, including Essex, Kingsville, Leamington and Lakeshore. Construction is to be fully completed by fall of 2022.
SWIFT awarded $8.5 million in federal and provincial funding to Cogeco and TekSavvy, but in total, Essex County will receive $19 million in broadband upgrades, which includes more than $10.5 million in contributions from the two ISPs for five fibre-to-the-home projects.
Cogeco Connexion will build three fibre-to-the-home projects including 207 kilometres of underserved roadway throughout Essex County to bring high-speed internet to 3,687 homes and businesses within the municipalities of Essex, Kingsville and Leamington. The projects represent a collective total investment of $13.3 million and will be completed with service available by late 2022, reads the SWIFT release.
TekSavvy Solutions will receive funding to support two fibre-to-the home projects which will see it deploy 52 kilometres of fibre-optic facilities within the Town of Lakeshore. “Representing a collective total investment of $5.8 million, the new fibre networks will provide high-speed internet service to 1,486 households by late 2021,” says the release.
“This additional investment will bring our high-quality connectivity services to 1,500 homes and businesses in the Town of Essex, 1,900 in the Municipality of Leamington and 200 in the Town of Kingsville,” says Frédéric Perron, President of Cogeco Connexion, in a company release.
The 3,600 homes and businesses in these communities will benefit from having access to the full range of Cogeco’s services, including a flexible television offering, high-speed Internet services with download speeds up to 1GB, as well as unlimited usage with most packages.
