How Bell is Expanding Rural Internet to Atlantic Canada

Bell is doubling rural Internet download speeds with Wireless Home Internet, service expanding to rural Atlantic Canada

Bell has announced its Wireless Home Internet (WHI) service for rural Canada will increase Internet download speeds to up to 50 Megabits per second and uploads to 10 Mbps (50/10) this fall while also expanding to rural communities throughout Atlantic Canada this fall.

"Leading the way in delivering broadband Internet access to rural Canada is a core part of Bell's goal to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, and we've made remarkable progress in narrowing the digital divide with Bell Wireless Home Internet. We're pleased to take this unique technology further by doubling Internet download speeds available to rural communities while also beginning our rollout of WHI service throughout Atlantic Canada," said Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada.

"Bell's continued investment in building the best networks has been critical to Canada's management of COVID-19's impact and will be key to the country's ongoing recovery. The intense usage of Wireless Home Internet and positive feedback from our rural customers throughout the COVID-19 crisis underscored how important fast and reliable broadband connections are to ensuring communities both large and small will be part of Canada's move forward. To meet the needs of our rural customers, Bell accelerated our service rollout in response to the unprecedented demand, bringing WHI service to 137,000 more households than anticipated by the end of April," said Mr. Bibic.

The new 50/10 WHI service will initially be offered to approximately 300,000 homes in 325 communities in Ontario, Québec and the Atlantic provinces starting this fall. Some of the first communities that will receive 50/10 service include: Selwyn, Trent Hills and Wilmot in Ontario; Dunham, Messines, Saint Adolphe d'Howard and Sutton in Québec; Doaktown, New Brunswick; Guysborough, Nova Scotia; Kensington, PEI; and Burgeo, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Fully funded by Bell, the Wireless Home Internet program is designed to bring broadband Internet access to homes in rural communities and other hard-to-reach locations by leveraging the scale of Bell's high-performance wireless networks – which will include upgrades to 5G service as necessary wireless spectrum is made available by the federal government.

"As the key builder of Canada's network infrastructure, Bell developed Wireless Home Internet specifically to ensure that rural Canada can share in all the opportunities of our digital future," said Stephen Howe, Bell's Chief Technology Officer. "Wireless Home Internet is ready to enable all the speed and capacity capabilities of fixed 5G Internet access in future by leveraging additional 3500 MHz spectrum following the federal wireless spectrum auction in 2021."

Already available to approximately 400,000 households in Ontario and Québec with download speeds of 25 Mbps, Bell's Wireless Home Internet service is expected to ultimately reach 1 million homes in smaller towns and rural communities across Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Québec, Ontario and Manitoba.