RENFREW COUNTY (Pembroke) — With the July 4th announcement of $71M in matching funding from the Federal Government, the Eastern Ontario Regional Network Mobile Broadband/Cell Project to close cellular gaps in Eastern Ontario for more than $1.1M rural residents has all the funding in place to proceed.
The Province of Ontario ($71M), the Government of Canada ($71M) along with contributions from more than 20 Eastern Ontario Municipalities through the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus ($10M) have now invested a total of $152M.
Approximately $61M in additional funds will also be added to the project by telecommunication firms chosen through a competitive bidding process.
Renfrew County Council passed a resolution supporting the project financially back in May of 2018, that will see the county contribute approximately $1M to help fund both the cellular gap analysis and the project itself.
The $213M project aims to close cellular gaps in the region that will create business growth, better connectivity for residents, and provide more reliable communications in an emergency.
The City of Pembroke is contributing approximately $80K in support of this regional initiative, which will benefit Pembroke’s businesses and residents.
The project, consisting of two phases, will first see the construction of 317 telecommunication towers, and the addition of 32 local internet access points.
The second phase will identify areas of heavy traffic and provide necessary upgrades to further reduce service gaps and overloads.
Warden of the County of Renfrew, Jennifer Murphy shared this comment;
“The improvement and expansion of the cellular and mobile broadband networks in Eastern Ontario is paramount to ensuring that our residents, businesses and emergency services have access to leading edge communications.”
