The Eastern Ontario Regional Network has submitted plans for their gig project to the federal and provincial governments.
The Gig Project hopes to bring fiberoptic cables to rural areas to increase internet speed to 1 gigabit per second. The proposals have been sent to the Federal Minister for Rural Economic Development and Ontario’s Minister of Infrastructure, hoping both will pitch in $200 million for the project. Both governments have pledged to invest in broadband, and EORN hopes their focus on local projects will catch their eye. The project is hoping to raise up to $1.6 Billion dollars through the two levels of government, the Canada Infrastructure Bank and the private sector.
ERON says that the project is more important now more than ever, as the pandemic has shown sluggish rural internet has impacted many parts of life. They hope the Gig Project, if funded, would be a long-term solution to this problem.