British Columbia has plans of becoming one of Canada’s most advanced provinces. That is why the government announced on December 22 that the entire province will have 100-per-cent connectivity by the year 2021. The B.C. government will start implementing its plans in the spring of 2013 so that the complete province will have affordable high-speed Internet. The focus is to reach people living in remote areas that are hard to access by giving them internet through broadband satellite.
According to the B.C. government’s plans the next five years will be spent creating the infrastructure to give 1,700 kilometres of new cellular coverage. This will be done along unconnected highways so that geographically-challenging location has the benefits of high speed internet. The plan also intends to upgrade 450 schools with high-speed, fiber-optic cables over the 10 years.
The government of B.C. has already started working on the project and according to Minister of Citizens’ Services, Ben Stewart, 455 kilometers of new highway cell service has been installed in the past 12 months. The benefits of the new coverage area have already been felt and the B.C. ambulance service’s Gordon Kirk claims that more people have been able to call for an ambulance. The expansion of the cellular network has also allowed the ambulance service in the area to be more efficient.
The entire project will be getting $40 million dollars and the cooperation and funding of two levels of government bring the First Nations communities online.
Source: Vancouver Sun