The federal government and Quebec have today announced a joint investment of $21.7 million, made as part of Canada–Quebec Operation High Speed, to bring Videotron high-speed internet services to over 5,000 households in the Capitale-Nationale region by September 2022.
Over the next few weeks, Videotron will take an inventory of the targeted regions to confirm the exact number of households that currently do not have access to high-speed Internet and will be covered by the deployment of services.
Videotron will receive a combined amount of $19.7 million from the two levels of government to support the deployment of high-speed Internet services to 5,320 households.
“This announcement marks a major step forward on this issue in Quebec. Thanks to this Ottawa-Quebec partnership, which also brings together Internet service providers, we will break down the technical barriers we’ve been dealing with since 2015. Together, we will ensure that every household and every business in the Capitale-Nationale region has access to high-speed Internet by September 2022.” – Jean-Yves Duclos, President of the Treasury Board.
Operation High Speed will connect 150,000 households in Quebec, through a total investment of $1.65 billion from Canada and Quebec, which includes partnerships with six major telcos for the rollout.
If the federal and provincial government of Quebec were to leverage SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet, at the cost of $649 per household for startup hardware, it works out to only $3.39 million.
