Areas In Brant County May Receive High-Speed Internet

Sunday, 26 January 2020 06:57

Pilot projects are already underway in three counties, including Norfolk and Wellington, to connect to nearly 11,000 underserved homes and businesses.

BRANT COUNTY - High-speed internet may be coming to underserved areas within Brant County.

The goal of Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) is to improve high-speed internet connectivity in underserved communities and rural areas in Southwestern Ontario.

The County is a part of the SWIFT project, which is a non-profit regional project in partnership with municipalities and the government of Ontario and Canada.

Mayor David Bailey says having access to high-speed internet is a necessity.

"Access to fast, unlimited and reliable internet is necessary for communities and businesses. Within the County of Brant and much of Southwestern Ontario, there are discrepancies in access to quality internet services. We need to improve this."

Pilot projects are currently underway, in a phased approach, to connect more than 10,700 underserved homes and businesses in Norfolk, Wellington and Lambton County.

Manager of Communications and Stakeholder Relations for SWIFT, Melissa O’Brien says they are looking over the results before moving forward.

"SWIFT is currently working with the Government of Ontario to analyze the results of the pilot projects. Once complete, a decision will be made as to how SWIFT will move forward with the remaining project areas, which include the County of Brant” While SWIFT is confident that there will be a positive outcome to this exercise, the province has a responsibility to ensure that they have completed a thorough analysis of the pilot before making a decision on moving forward with the next phase. If a decision is made to proceed, SWIFT expects to issue and close all remaining Requests for Proposals, including the County of Brant, within this calendar year with construction to start shortly after that."

The total cost of the expansion project for Southwestern Ontario is $209 million.

You can visit here to learn more about the SWIFT project.