DAWSON CITY, WATSON LAKE and UPPER LIARD, Yukon — Northwestel announced today it has launched full fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) Internet service to more than 1,000 homes in three Yukon communities.
Residents and businesses in Dawson City, Watson Lake and Upper Liard “now have access to unlimited data and Internet speeds 16 times greater than previously available,” says a press release.
“Maximum residential Internet speeds in these communities have increased from 15 Mbps to 250 Mbps (download speed) and now far surpass the CRTC’s universal service objective of 50 Mbps,” reads the release.
These are the first fibre upgrades as part of Northwestel’s Every Community project, the company’s three-year plan to bring high-speed unlimited Internet to 10,000 homes in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Northwestel calls the Every Community project its “largest-ever construction initiative”, which is funded by Northwestel’s own investments and $62 million from the CRTC Broadband Fund.
“Northwestel is proud to be bringing fibre-to-the-home to Yukon communities for the very first time,” said Northwestel president Curtis Shaw, in the press release.
“This is the same leading network technology that connects homes in Canada’s largest southern cities and now we’re using full fibre connections to close the digital divide in Canada’s most northern communities. This is just the beginning and we look forward to connecting customers to fibre in every land-served rural community in the Yukon and NWT over the next 2 years,” Shaw said.
With today’s announcement, there are now five northern communities that Northwestel serves primarily with fibre — earlier this year, the company announced the rollout of FTTH in Inuvik, NWT, which followed its FTTH launch in Hay River, NWT in 2020. These fibre upgrades in the two NWT communities were done through Northwestel’s own investments.
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