KING, Ont. – Friday marked the official first connection to Vianet’s King Township fibre optic broadband expansion project.
This new network, built by independent operator Vianet, “is the start of a continued rural fibre optic build initiative to reach home and business owners that do not presently have access to wired broadband,” said a company press release. “The new Internet service will give these customers access to gigabit speeds without data caps and finally close the broadband gap that presently exists between urban and rural Ontario.”
Construction began earlier this year and is expected to be completed by the spring of 2019. It will bring fibre to more than 1,000 homes, farms and businesses, providing speeds up to 1 Gbps.
The build was made possible with funding from the federal and provincial governments through the Small Communities Fund. Both the federal government and provincial government contributed $825,000 towards completion of the project while Vianet contributed an additional $1.65 million dollars.
"All of us at Vianet are proud to be an integral part of this milestone event,” said Vianet president Will Gasteiger in the release. This initial end-user fibre optic connection is a product of the efforts of many parties – the visionary support of the mayor and council of King Township, the financial support of the Ontario and Canadian governments and the hard work of Vianet staff and contractors… This may be the first connection, but many others will follow.”
