MAGOG, Que. – The Québec government said today it will help fund 66 projects selected from its “Régions branchées” call for broadband expansion announced in October 2019.
The new builds will provide broadband Internet at a comparable price to those offered in urban areas to more than 60,000 households. Please click here to see the list of projects.
The selected projects are located in 11 regions of Quebec, namely those of Bas-Saint-Laurent, Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean, Capitale-Nationale, Mauricie, Estrie, Outaouais, Chaudière-Appalaches, Lanaudière, Laurentides, Montérégie and Center-du-Québec. The government contribution to the projects, which will be carried out by Cogeco, Bell, Videotron, Telus and others is estimated at $150 million, says the government’s release.
This announcement from Régions branchées is part of the ongoing plan to providing access to broadband Internet services to all households, businesses and organizations located in all regions of Quebec, says the press release.
The Quebec government’s previous program, Connected Quebec, funded broadband Internet access to 110,000 Quebec households, and about 50,000 additional homes are expected to get broadband thanks to the CRTC Broadband Fund. Finally, the province estimates that 120,000 additional homes will get high speed (and the provincial release commits to 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload) access thanks to the joint call for projects between the government of Quebec and the federal government through its Connect to Innovate fund, which will be launched this summer.
The province also announced today, in an effort to speed up the deployment of broadband Internet access services across Quebec, a panel bringing together Hydro-Quebec, Bell Canada, Télébec, Telus and the Minister of the Economy and Innovation. This group aims to quicken the processing of requests for access to telecommunications support infrastructures housed by third parties other than these owners, something carriers have long complained about.
Bell, Videotron and Cogeco all made announcements Thursday setting out how they will expand their networks in rural regions, under the program, which are to be complete by the summer of 2022. Other companies who won funding include Telus, Sogetel, Maskatel, Dery Telecom, Targo Communications, Co-operative CSUR, and Digicom.
Bell said it will deliver all-fibre Internet connections to approximately 7,000 homes, businesses and other organizations in 18 communities across Québec .
Videotron said it will be building new infrastructure to provide residents of Charlevoix, the Lower St. Lawrence, Memphrémagog and Montérégie with broadband service, connecting nearly 9,000 homes and businesses.
Cogeco received funding for 11 projects and will connect more than 15,500 homes located in 15 regional county municipalities across Québec.
For more, please click here.
