Residents in some rural Newfoundland and Labrador will soon have access to faster internet thanks to a new CA$1.379 million collaboration between the federal government and Bell Canada announced today.
Come November, 1,184 households in Goose Cove, Great Brehat, St. Anthony, St. Anthony Bight and St. Carols will get internet speeds of up to 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload.
The federal government subsidized CA$379,000 while Bell Canada contributed the other CA$1 million. The subsidized portion came from the Rapid Response Stream of the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) announced in November of last year.
“In order to drive economic and social prosperity, it is important to encourage local Internet service providers to submit proposals and access historic federal UBF funding to get shovel-ready projects to fruition,” said Gudie Hutchings, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Rural Economic Development, in a press release.
Along with other funding programs, the CA$1.75 billion Universal Broadband Fund will help bring internet speeds of 50Mbps download/10Mbps upload to all Canadians by 2030 through public and private funding.
The UBF project also simplified the application process for operators and promised more transparent development progress for the public. Project proposals for UBF ended on March 15 and are now being evaluated.
The news release wrote that the federal government has invested over $428 million in 662 infrastructure projects in Newfoundland and Labrador communities, including improving housing and drinking water. In 2018, the federal and provincial governments, along with private sectors, raised $40 million to develop networks in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.