Rural Broadband Internet Network Upgrade Project

in progress

The Rural Broadband Internet Network Upgrade Project (the Project) consists of upgrading and improving the capacity of the existing fixed-wireless Rural Broadband Internet Network across Mainland New Brunswick, in response to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) in Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2016-496 new target for national broadband internet service set in 2016, which specifies that Canadians should be able to access speeds of at least 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. This project includes four components: (1) the installation of approximately 1,700 km of new fibre-optic cable (2) enabling of 1,300 km of existing dark fibre optic cable that is currently not in use (3) upgrades to existing fixed wireless transmission equipment (4) connecting 170 existing fixed-wireless towers to fibre-optic backhaul. The Project will impact approximately 63,000 rural households by increasing fixed-wireless network download speeds from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps and increasing satellite download speeds from 5 Mbps to 25 Mbps, which will allow rural residents to have access to broadband internet plans that are similar to the ones that are available in urban areas.