NEW LISKEARD, Ont. – As the provision of rural broadband has been the focus of an ongoing CRTC hearing, one of the companies which faced the CRTC last week today announced the launch of its new wireless network for Northern Ontario.
By early December, mobile customers along the Highway 11, 101, 65 and 66 corridors in Northern Ontario will be able to get on a brand new HSPA+ 3G network thanks to NorthernTel, a division of Bell Aliant. The company will switch on the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) network that is being built out across Canada by Bell Canada and Telus this month.
The network will allow the company to roll out a wide range of new mobile phones, smartphones and turbo sticks which enable high speed Internet access anywhere on the network.
“This $4.9 million investment is a significant enhancement to the existing mobile landscape in north eastern Ontario,” said Mary-Ann Bell, senior vice-president, Bell Aliant Ontario, in a press release. “We added HSPA+ to 29 of our existing sites and added three new HSPA+ sites to improve coverage gaps.
“We were pleased to work with NEOnet, our project partner who helped secure $2 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), covering the majority of the additional $2.24 million investment which was required to construct the new sites at Mattice, Thornloe and New Liskeard.”
“Our investments in the expansion of broadband and cellular phone service across the North are making it possible for northern residents to connect effectively to the world as well as helping northern businesses and industry compete successfully in marketplaces that demand speed and immediacy in their transactions. I am pleased that provincial funding is helping bring these competitive advantages to more and more parts of the James Bay Frontier,” added Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry and Chair of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, in the release.
HSPA+ boasts peak download speeds of up to 21 Mbps and also supports international roaming in more than 200 countries around the globe.
NorthernTel’s territory spans 83,000 square kilometres, stretches from Calstock to Latchford and from Virginiatown to Timmins.
