High-speed internet is now available in Shelburne County and areas surrounding Canning in Kings County. Other accelerated projects are underway to connect more homes and businesses across the province.
In March, the province announced an additional $15 million to speed up delivery of high-speed internet for Nova Scotians, where possible, to assist Nova Scotians through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The accelerated plans under the Internet for Nova Scotia initiative includes $2.2 million to bring service six months sooner to 18,000 connections in the Elmsdale, Shelburne and Caledonia, Queens Co. areas, and Cumberland and Colchester counties. As part of the work, Cumberland and Colchester counties will see 19 towers installed within 100 days.
Develop Nova Scotia has led the work with internet service providers to identify opportunities to accelerate projects. More than 260 kilometres of pole lines have been prepared, including trimming vegetation, replacing poles and dealing with water crossings.
Government is also working with providers to ease congestion on existing services to enhance the quality of internet connections. This will help Nova Scotians working differently and from home during COVID-19, while still staying connected to friends and family.
Government remains committed to cover more than 95 per cent of Nova Scotia homes and businesses – and as close to 100 per cent as possible. With the first round of projects announced, 86 per cent of homes and businesses will have access to the service.
“The importance of high-speed internet for Nova Scotians is pressing. We engaged our internet service provider partners to help solve this critical challenge with ingenuity and urgency and we are seeing results. We will continue to look at projects from every angle to get access to high-quality internet for Nova Scotians as soon as possible.”
– Jennifer Angel, chief executive officer, Develop Nova Scotia.
Quick Facts:
— access to connections will be substantially complete within 12 months for the more than 42,000 homes and businesses announced in the first round of projects
— after the first round of projects were announced in February, Develop Nova Scotia issued another request for proposals to capture areas that remain underserved or unserved. These projects are expected to be announced this August
— wired technology projects will provide minimum speeds of 50 Mbps to download and 10 Mbps to upload, while wireless technologies will provide minimum speeds of 25 Mbps to download and 5 Mbps to upload. This will allow users to browse email, download music and large files, play online games, and stream high definition video
— about 70 per cent of Nova Scotia homes and businesses currently have access to internet
— the Nova Scotia Internet Trust Fund was a $193 million fund established in 2018
Additional Resources:
Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative updates are available at: https://developns.ca/projects/high-speed-internet/
Source: Release