Higher internet speeds are coming to tens of thousands of Alberta households after the federal and provincial governments announced 27 new broadband projects on Friday.
“Every corner of Alberta should have access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet.”
Announced outside of Edmonton in the nearby hamlet of Ardrossan, Alta., the new projects will bring internet access speeds up to federal targets for 83,600 homes across 759 communities, including 3,488 Indigenous households. Among those Indigenous households is the Woodland Cree First Nation, which is building a fibre-to-home network in Cadotte Lake, Alta.
Funding for the projects comes with a price tag of $373,558,700, split three ways between Alberta ($112,390,887), Canada ($136,926,460), and service provider partners ($124,241,423).
“Every corner of Alberta should have access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet, whether that’s in Slave Lake or Beaver Mines,” said Buckley Belanger, the secretary of state for rural development with the federal government, in a press release. “Today’s announcement is a major milestone.”
These 27 projects fit into larger initiatives from both the provincial and federal governments, including Alberta’s Broadband Strategy and Canada’s connectivity strategy, that aim to advance connectivity across both the province and the nation. The federal government outlines the minimum connectivity standards that should be accessible to all Canadians as being able to download at 50 megabits per second and upload at 10 megabits per second. For context, those speeds would allow the average household to stream movies, download software updates, and use tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other teleconferencing platforms.
According toCanada’s High-Speed Internet Access Dashboard, Alberta has made significant strides in improving access, with 95.3 percent of provincial households meeting the standard, up from 89.2 percent in 2021. However, rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, which make up the bulk of Alberta’s remaining 4.7 percent, often significantly lag behind in access and speed. That rural-urban divide is consistent in many jurisdictions across the country.
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Some people and organizations have called for the internet to be considered a public utility, as essential services like banking, healthcare, mail, and work increasingly shift to digital platforms.
“When we launched our broadband strategy, we set an ambitious goal: ensure every Albertan—no matter where they are in the province—has access to reliable, high-speed internet,” said Alberta’s Minister of Technology and Innovation, Nate Glubish. “This latest batch of projects brings Alberta to over 95 per cent of our goal and shows how far we’ve come.”
Since the strategy’s launch in 2022, the provincial and federal governments have invested more than $622 million of the Universal Broadband Fund’s $780 million across 81 connectivity projects. Fourteen broadband projects have completed construction, 44 are in progress, and 24 more are currently in planning.
Separate from the joint federal-provincial announcement, Canada is providing an additional $24.5 million investment in Edmonton-based Arrow Technology Group, an IT and broadband company with a focus on rural and Indigenous connectivity. That investment will specifically target a single project to reach 1,059 households in Alberta, including 676 Indigenous homes.
Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy Woodland Cree First Nation.