New federal funding to connect 93 rural Manitoba communities to high-speed internet

Thousands of households in rural Manitoba are one step closer to high-speed internet.

Federal Minister of Northern Affairs Dan Vandal announced more than $41 million in federal funding Wednesday, which will go toward bringing high-speed connections to residents of 93 rural communities.

“High-speed internet service is essential to the success of everyone living and working in rural communities across Manitoba,” Vandal said.

“Today’s investment will bring reliable, high-speed broadband access to 93 communities in the province. This will help create jobs, improve access to health care and online learning services, and keep people connected to their family, friends and loved ones.”

The funding is part of a pair of programs — Connect to Innovate (CTI) and Rapid Response Stream (RRS) — that will create backbone infrastructure to improve internet speed for 14,000 households (CTI) and connect 4,200 households directly to broadband (RRS).

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Both projects are funded by the Universal Broadband Fund, which was launched in November of last year with the goal of connecting 98 per cent of Canadians to high-speed internet by 2026.

3:23 Manitoba announces rural and northern broadband internet service to help business, make life safer