Officials are celebrating completion of a fibre-optic project in St. Clair Township they say has brought broadband to more than 2,000 residents.
The $5.2-million, 80-km fibre-optic network built by Cogeco serves homes and businesses along the St. Clair River between Corunna and Baby Point, as well as in the Brigden and Wilkesport areas.
It’s one of six high-speed internet projects in Lambton County initiated by Southwestern Integrated Fiber Technology (SWIFT) and aided by funding from federal and provincial governments, as well as the county.
“To date, five out of six SWIFT awarded high-speed internet projects have been completed in Lambton County and we anticipate that the network build out of the final project will be complete in the coming weeks,” Barry Field, the organization’s executive director, said in a news release.
SWIFT is a non-profit project initiated by a county wardens’ group in Western Ontario to provide high-speed broadband to areas of the region without it.
The Cogeco project in St. Clair Township was one of the largest of SWIFT’s Lambton projects.
“I think it’s awesome,” said Jeff Agar, the newly-elected mayor of the township.
“We’ve covered quite a bit,” he said about areas of the municipality that have been without access to reliable broadband.
“Everybody deserves the internet, if you want it – and high-speed stuff,” Agar said.
The SWIFT projects in Lambton have a total value of $18.8 million and were designed to provide broadband to more than 4,900 county homes and businesses.
The final Lambton project is with Brooke Telecom and brings broadband to more than 570 potential customers in central Lambton County. It was expected to cost more than $5.9 million and is scheduled to be completed by the end of January, according to SWIFT.
The other local SWIFT projects serve areas of the lakeshore in Plympton-Wyoming, as well as shoreline and inland areas of Lambton Shores.
“The completion of the St. Clair Township high-speed internet project has been the best news that local businesses and residents have received after many years of little or no service in this area,” Lambton Warden Kevin Marriott said in a news release.
“The completion of these projects continues to have a very positive economic impact for rural Lambton County,” he said.
Field said that with completion of the St. Clair Township project, “more than 90 per cent of homes and businesses in SWIFT-funded project areas throughout Lambton County now have access to high-speed internet.”
SWIFT said the Lambton projects are part of a $270-million broadband expansion plan to bring high-speed internet to nearly 64,000 homes and businesses throughout southwestern Ontario,