Bell has announced today its Wireless Home Internet (WHI) service for rural Canadians will see double the download speeds, starting this fall.
The first 300,000 households will see download speeds of up to 50 Mbps and uploads up to 10 Mbps, while service will also expand to Atlantic Canada this fall.
“Leading the way in delivering broadband Internet access to rural Canada is a core part of Bell’s goal to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, and we’ve made remarkable progress in narrowing the digital divide with Bell Wireless Home Internet. We’re pleased to take this unique technology further by doubling Internet download speeds available to rural communities while also beginning our rollout of WHI service throughout Atlantic Canada,” said Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada, in a statement.
The new 50/10 wireless home internet offing will reach 325 communities in Ontario, Québec and the Atlantic provinces starting this fall, reaching about 300,000 homes in the following areas: Selwyn, Trent Hills and Wilmot in Ontario; Dunham, Messines, Saint Adolphe d’Howard and Sutton in Québec; Doaktown, New Brunswick; Guysborough, Nova Scotia; Kensington, PEI; and Burgeo, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Bell reiterated, “Wireless Home Internet is ready to enable all the speed and capacity capabilities of fixed 5G Internet access in future by leveraging additional 3500 MHz spectrum following the federal wireless spectrum auction in 2021.”
Currently, WHI is available to approximately 400,000 households in Ontario and Québec with download speeds of 25 Mbps. Bell says the service aims to eventually reach 1 million homes soon.
With Elon Musk’s Starlink Internet set to launch beta tests in Canada, it’s clear existing internet service providers in rural areas will have to step up to compete against the service.
