Rural broadband: Connect to Innovate cut some communities from B.C. coast project

ISED officials said areas with 5/1 Mbps are already served By Ahmad Hathout BRITISH COLUMBIA'S BIG $45.4-million broadband project which is expected to run a 3,400-kilometre stretch of underwater fibre cable along the province’s coast was reduced from Connect to Innovate funding because some communities already met an old guideline for broadband connectivity. When officials from Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) came to do a due diligence assessment of the Connected Coast project, they found some communities had met the Connect to Innovate (CTI) program’s “served” criteria - those communities that had speeds of 5 Mbps download and 1...