STRATHROY, ON; NORTH BATTLEFORD and LA RONGE, SK – Ontario’s TekSavvy and Execulink Telecom and Saskatchewan’s SaskTel and YourLink are the latest four Internet service providers to benefit from the federal government’s Connecting Canadians program.
In the first of three announcements this week, Industry Canada said that TekSavvy and Execulink will receive a total of $3.15 million to connect over 11,000 homes in southwestern Ontario to faster Internet services. This investment will benefit 30 communities in southwestern Ontario, including over 5,000 households in the Lambton Kent Middlesex region.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of April 2018, and will deliver Internet download speeds of up to 20 Mbps.
"With the assistance of the Government of Canada, we are excited to be able to invest in network access facilities that will see southwestern Ontario become more connected and to deliver an awesome Internet experience over that connection", said TekSavvy CEO Marc Gaudrault, in the news release.
"Participating in the Connecting Canadians program will allow Execulink to expand our fibre to the home network to the rural communities of Poplar Hill, Melrose, Coldstream, Lobo, Denfield and Carlisle, giving them the ability to stay competitive with urban communities”, added Execulink president and CEO Ian Stevens. “It will also allow us to upgrade the infrastructure on our existing fixed wireless facilities in Oxford, Elgin and Middlesex, providing more homeowners who use this service access to higher Internet speeds. Overall it is an exciting day for Internet users in our area, and we look forward to bringing these enhanced services to them."
In the second announcement, YourLink, a division of Vecima Networks, will receive $4.63 million to connect over 40,000 homes in Saskatchewan to high-speed Internet, benefiting over 100 communities in the southern half of the province, including over 6,000 households in the Battlefords Lloydminster region.
The project is expected to be completed before the end of April 2018, and will deliver Internet to homes at a minimum speed of 5 Mbps.
"As the largest private sector provider of rural broadband in Saskatchewan, we intimately appreciate the challenges faced by rural Canadians in achieving equitable access to broadband”, said YourLink president and CEO Sumit Kumar, in that news release. “We applaud the Government of Canada for its commitment to partner with network operators. This undertaking will provide many more Canadians living in rural Saskatchewan with broadband Internet access to the global digital economy."
On Friday, Industry Canada announced that SaskTel will receive $7.42 million to connect nearly 2,700 homes in 26 communities in northern Saskatchewan to faster Internet services.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of June 2017, and will deliver Internet download speeds at a minimum of 5 Mbps.
"SaskTel is pleased to partner with the federal government to deliver high-speed connectivity to rural and remote communities in northern Saskatchewan”, said Jim Reiter, Minister Responsible for SaskTel, in the news release. “The Connecting Canadians program supports SaskTel's goal of bringing faster broadband speeds to our northern communities in order to provide equitable access to services such as communications, education, health, electronic commerce and entertainment."
www.sasktel.com
