New Brunswick-based Xplornet has announced it will expand fibre optic to Nova Scotia, bringing “faster Internet speeds, unlimited data and the latest fixed broadband technology supported by fibre.”
The expansion will see roughly 24,000 rural homes and businesses get broadband internet, in a project that will see investments from Xplornet, Develop Nova Scotia, and the Municipalities of Cumberland and Colchester.
“At Xplornet, we are delighted to invest in world-class infrastructure to deliver faster broadband with unlimited data to more rural Canadians,” said Allison Lenehan, President and CEO of Xplornet, in a statement. “We are a Canadian company, proudly based in Atlantic Canada. This represents a major expansion of our services in Nova Scotia and is an important chapter for our company. We can’t wait to get started on this project, delivering amazing broadband to rural Nova Scotians.”
Fibre optic cable will be installed by Xplornet, along with 5G ready wireless broadband hardware added to existing networks, allowing for fibre-to-the-home and fixed wireless services, with speeds up too 100 Mbps (and future-proofed to support over 1 Gbps), in what the company emphasizes will be beyond targets of the CRTC.
Xplornet says 16,000 homes from the Nova Scotia Internet Funding Trust (NSIFT) will benefit from the expansion, along with 8,000 homes outside of the latter.
Back in 2019, Xplornet announced a $500 million investment to expand its national broadband network for rural Canadians. The Nova Scotia project is expected to start later in 2020.
