Funding coming from Connecting British Columbia program, UBF and Rogers
TORONTO — Rogers Communications announced today it is expanding its wireless network, including 5G coverage, in British Columbia by building new cell towers along Highways 14 and 16 (known as the Highway of Tears) to provide reliable connectivity on these critical routes.
For Highway 16, Rogers along with its 5G partner Ericsson will build 12 new towers to close key gaps and provide 252 kms of new cell coverage along the corridor between Prince Rupert and Prince George, so there will be continuous coverage along all 720 kms of this northern highway through to Prince George. Rogers will also provide coverage to three provincial highway rest stops along Highway 16 located at Boulder Creek, Basalt Creek and Sanderson Point. Work on this network expansion project is beginning in the spring of 2021 and is expected to continue through to October 2022, says Rogers’s press release.
“The ability to make a call from a highway if your car breaks down or to connect to Wi-Fi at a local rest stop, is incredibly important. At Rogers, we understand that this is not a nice-to-have, it’s a need-to-have, and no more so than along Highway 16, known as the Highway of Tears. We want to do our part to solve for connectivity along this corridor, and acknowledge the number of women, many of whom are Indigenous, that have gone missing or have been found murdered along this stretch of highway,” reads the press release.
For Highway 14, Rogers will build seven new cell towers to provide additional network coverage along a 70-km stretch of the highway between Sooke and Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island. Rogers is also providing a Wi-Fi hotspot at the Sombrio Rest Area on the highway. Construction on these towers begins this spring and is estimated to be complete by October 2021, says the release.
Rogers says these network expansions have been made possible by leveraging financial support from the provincially funded Connecting British Columbia program, administered by Northern Development Initiative Trust.
According to a B.C. government press release, the Connecting British Columbia program and the federal government’s Universal Broadband Fund will provide Rogers $4.5 million in funding toward the $11.6-million cost of installing new cellular infrastructure along Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Smithers.
In addition, according to a second press release from the B.C. government, Rogers will receive up to $4.9 million from the Connecting British Columbia program toward the cost of building the cellular infrastructure along Highway 14 between Sooke and Port Renfrew. Rogers’s contribution to this project was not disclosed.
Photo montage borrowed from Rogers’s website.
