Councillor, Roger Watt, had some good news for Huron county council at their last meeting.
Watt says an announcement on one of the Province's websites stated that a significant amount of new funding was being invested in getting broadband to under-serviced areas.
Watt says both HuronTel and Tuckersmith were going to get funding and the areas affected would be primarily, A-C-W, North Huron, Huron East and Central Huron.
In total, it came to about $4.5 million dollars of Federal – Provincial dollars for HuronTel, and $10.5 million for Tuckersmith. Watt says that will bring broadband service to another two-thousand and 88 premises.
“So, in effect, we've gone, from about, in Huron County, fifteen per cent under-serviced, before SWIFT started, to ten per cent after SWIFT is finally finished, in a couple of years. And this additional two thousand will bring it down to just under a thousand ... 964.”
Watt says that will bring the number of under-serviced premises down to three per cent, from fifteen per cent before SWIFT started to one-thousand premises still under-serviced.
Watt adds, the announcement didn't specify over what time period the work would be done, but the SWIFT part of the project is supposed to be done by 2023
“Universal Broadband Fund” / “Improving Connectivity for Ontario” projects:
Huron Telecommunications Co-operative Limited $517,826 Auburn 109
Huron Telecommunications Co-operative Limited $557,025 Bluevale, Belgrave 111
Huron Telecommunications Co-operative Limited $793,578 Blyth, Lucknow, St. Helens, Wingham 115
Huron Telecommunications Co-operative Limited $2,027,878 Benmiller, Bogies Beach, Nile 427
Huron Telecommunications Co-operative Limited $596,813 St. Helens 135
Tuckersmith Communications Cooperative Ltd $10,625,666 Belgrave, Bluevale, Blyth, Brussels, Clinton, Ethel, Henfryn, Kinburn, Londesborough, Seaforth, Walton 1,191