Ready for applicants, $1.75B broadband fund to favour low cost, open access projects

Government promises faster action, 250,000 new connections by the end of 2021 By Ahmad Hathout OTTAWA – The federal government announced Monday that it will begin accepting applications for its Universal Broadband Fund, which will now include an additional $750 million of new money and a fast-track application stream. The $1.75-billion program, announced in the federal budget back in March 2019, will carve out $150 million to provide rapid project completion by November 15, 2021 for “shovel-ready” projects. The government anticipates spending up to $5 million on the speedier projects – applications of which are due by January 2021 –...