Rural New Brunswickers who are tired of slow and unreliable internet may soon have some relief.
The federal government announced $40 million Thursday to help improve fixed wireless internet service in the province.
About 83,000 rural households and businesses throughout New Brunswick will benefit from the project, officials said.
Fundy Royal MP Alaina Lockhart said she hears all too often from people frustrated by a lack of fast and reliable internet.
“It’s everything from businesses not having the bandwidth to be able to upload their payroll until 3 o’clock in the morning because they have visitors or guests that are also using the service to kids trying to do homework at home,” said Lockhart.
The work will be done by Woodstock-based Xplornet Communications Inc., which will contribute $63 million and any “outstanding project costs.” They will install or enable up to 3,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable and upgrade existing infrastructure to better connect 170 fixed-wireless towers to the fibre-optic grid.
“Today’s announcement is the next step in our plan to continue evolving and improving Internet service in rural New Brunswick by deploying the latest 5G-ready technology in our home province,” said Allison Lenehan, president and CEO of Xplornet, in a statement.
Internet is no longer a luxury in this day and age, said Lockhart, whose riding consists of many rural communities.
“This really is about making sure that they have the tools they need to succeed and success shouldn’t depend on your postal code,” she said.
“I’ve always been very confident that if we could connect every home to electricity and we could get phones in every home that internet connectivity should be something that we could achieve as well.”
The work is expected to take place over the next couple of years.