Quebec says it reached its goal to connect all residents to high-speed internet

Quebec has met its promise to offer all residents in the province access to high-speed internet more than a month before its deadline.

Well, sort of.

As reported by Cartt.ca, some homes destined to have access to high-speed internet, defined as having download speeds of 50Mbps and upload speeds of 10Mbps, won’t have access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service by the deadline.

Residents who fall into this group will likely have access by March 2023. Until then, the roughly 70,000 homes that meet this category can utilize subsidized satellite services that meet high-speed internet requirements.

It’s important to note the government did not have plans to provide FTTH to all households in the province because of the high cost, opting for subsidized satellite services from Starlink for some. 10,000 homes fall into this category.

Gilles Bélanger, the premier’s parliamentary assistant for high-speed internet, was given $1.3 billion to grant high-speed internet access to households in the province without it. However, Bélanger told Cartt.ca they were able to complete the project with $700 million, alongside nearly half a billion dollars from the federal government.

The federal government has promised all households will have access to high-speed internet by 2030, and several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, have outlined plans to make this happen.

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Source: Cartt.ca