Ottawa to Spend $73 Million to Connect Rural New Brunswick via Rogers and Xplore

The federal government is dropping more than $73 million of taxpayer funds toward high-speed internet in rural New Brunswick, with Rogers and Xplore splitting the work.

Buckley Belanger, Secretary of State for Rural Development, made the announcement Wednesday in Keswick Ridge. The funding is meant to connect over 27,600 homes across more than 500 communities, part of Ottawa’s broader push to get every Canadian household online by 2030.

Rogers is getting $40.7 million to reach 15,254 households, while Xplore is receiving $32.4 million to connect 12,393 more. Both companies are expected to wrap up their builds by December 2028, at an average cost of roughly $2,644 per home. That doesn’t include the cost of monthly high speed internet, as that’s just to lay down the fibre, which can take quite some time.

That number invites some comparison. Starlink’s residential plan currently starts at $70 a month, meaning that same $2,644 would cover about three years of satellite internet service with no hardware costs upfront and speeds up to 100 Mbps, available instantly. Critics of traditional fibre buildouts have long argued that satellite options can get rural homes online faster and cheaper, even if the long-term economics eventually favour fixed infrastructure.

The projects are focused on areas that have historically been hard to serve, including Anagance, Harvey, and several Indigenous communities such as the Elsipogtog and Esgenoôpetitj First Nations. For residents there, better connectivity means real practical changes: being able to see a doctor virtually, take courses online, or run a small business from home.

New Brunswick already sits at 95.6% high-speed coverage provincewide, but these investments are aimed at the communities that still haven’t made it into that number.