Northwestel announced Tuesday its high-speed fibre internet service is now available to customers in Smith’s Landing and Fort Fitzgerald in northern Alberta.
Residential customers in both communities can access Northwestel’s unlimited internet packages offering download speeds of up to 700 Mbps, while businesses can benefit from speeds up to 750 Mbps.
The high-speed internet service is made possible by Northwestel’s construction of fibre-to-the-home infrastructure in the communities, which the far north telecom completed in December. Northwestel designed and installed the fibre network and will operate and maintain it.
This fibre project was initiated by the Smith’s Landing First Nation, who approached Northwestel to partner on the project, according to a press release. The project was funded by the federal government’s Universal Broadband Fund and First Nation Infrastructure Fund, as well as by the government of Alberta, Smith’s Landing First Nation, and Northwestel.
“We’re thrilled to be now serving Smith’s Landing and Fort Fitzgerald with the fastest and most reliable internet technology around: fibre optics,” Curtis Shaw, Northwestel’s president, said in the press release. “The arrival of fibre in these communities is yet another example of our commitment to bridging the digital divide between remote communities in Northern Canada and the rest of the country.”
Before the arrival of fibre, Smith’s Landing and Fort Fitzgerald residents got their internet service via DSL, which limited download speeds to a maximum of 5 Mbps, the press release says.
“Smith’s Landing First Nation and our community members are very excited to be part of this fibre upgrade,” Chief Thaidene Paulette said in a statement. “We look forward to the positive impacts this will bring to our members and their families. Faster and reliable internet means better access to educational resources, employment, training, and entertainment. This will help in closing the gap to some of the challenges of living in a remote Indigenous community.”
The fibre upgrade in Smith’s Landing and Fort Fitzgerald comes on the heels of Northwestel announcing the launch of the Canada North Fibre Loop, which provides redundancy and resiliency to Northwestel’s network.
Photo via Northwestel
