TORONTO – The Ontario government announced today it is helping bring high-speed Internet access to up to 266,000 homes and businesses as it seeks to connect all premises in the province by the end of 2025.
“The province has signed agreements with eight internet service providers to bring access to as many as 339 municipalities across Ontario,” a press release explains. “The internet service providers were selected through a two-stage competitive process and are part of Ontario’s historic investment of nearly $4 billion to bring access to reliable high-speed internet across the province.”
The process used by the government to award the projects announced today involved a series of reverse auctions.
“This competitive process is the first of its kind in Canada and has led to an unprecedented market response and commitment to deliver high-speed internet connections to communities that have been left underserved until now,” said Michael Lindsay, president and CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, in the press release. “We at Infrastructure Ontario are proud to help create a connected, modern and competitive Ontario.”
The service providers, estimated funding and estimated number of households and businesses to be served are:
- Bell Canada: $483.8 million for up to 82,632 premises
- Bragg Communications: $69 million for up to 9,507 premises
- Cogeco Connexion: $74.3 million for up to 13,856 premises
- Community Network Partners: $150.2 million for up to 9,397 premises
- Eh!tel Networks Inc.: $24.7 million for up to 3,265 premises
- North Frontenac Telephone Company: $39.5 million for up to 3,682 premises
- Rogers Communications Canada Inc.: $171 million for up to 89,295 premises
- Xplornet Communications Inc.: $240 million for up to 54,679 premises
For a complete list of communities to be served by each provider, please click here.
Some of the service providers have offered more details about their plans.
In its own press release today, Bell announced it will invest over $650 million in partnership with the Government of Ontario investment. The funding will help “provide fast and high-capacity 100% fibre connections with Internet download speeds of up to 3 Gbps and access to leading Bell services such as Fibe TV,” the release says. Bell also indicated it will be able to serve an additional 37,000 homes and businesses in the vicinity of the communities it has been awarded funding for today.
Cogeco Connexion (a subsidiary of Cogeco Communications) meanwhile announced today it has already begun work on its projects, while Xplornet announced in another press release its “new fibre network will make gigabit speeds available to rural customers” and that additionally, “a fibre-powered 5G fixed wireless network in adjacent areas will offer rural homes and businesses download speeds up to 100 Mbps with higher speeds rolling out over time.”
