South West Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) Network

completed

The scope of the project is to select service providers to build new and employ existing fibre optic infrastructure throughout Southwestern Ontario such that when the initial build phase of the project is completed in 2020, fibre optic access will be available in about 310 communities across the region to a population density as low as 4 person per square kilometre. SWIFT will include optical transport, aggregation, and access connectivity as a basis for providing Metro-Ethernet Forum (MEF) standard of service over a unified platform. SWIFT will be an open access system equitably available to all providers and users in the region. Because we are building only fibre optic infrastructure, designed with redundancy and diversity, it will be a highly available, infinitely scalable system offering unparalleled reliability. Service providers will build and operate the network and pay modest wholesale and retail residuals to SWIFT in exchange for the upfront build cost subsidy they receive from SWIFT and our federal and provincial government partners; the residuals will be regularly redeployed to the service providers to continue to support the building out of access fibre optic infrastructure in the region. It is the objective of SWIFT to connect virtually every resident, farmer, business, and public sector organization to fibre optics by 2040 and thereby contributing to the resurgence of the regional economy everyone needs.