In 2019, perhaps early in the year, New Brunswick rural homes and businesses will have the technology necessary to provision 5G services as Canadian broadband provider Xplornet brings the necessary telecom infrastructure to the area. The first phase of the project will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. This new Xplornet broadband service will support speeds of 100 Mbps, the company said.
Xplornet will make the province one of the first areas in the country to have access to 5G ready technology, once the company finishes deploying its hybrid fiber wireless network. The plan is for the network to use the same 3500 MHz spectrum that the company is currently using in a trial environment.
Xplornet 5G
“At Xplornet our mission is to enable rural Canadians to live where they want to live and connect to what matters,” said Allison Lenehan, Xplornet president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “5G technology is not just about cities – it is about all of the unique services it can enable wherever you are in Canada.”
The total cost of the project is $30 million, $10 million of that coming from the province.
“Fast, reliable Internet connectivity in today’s digital world is vital, especially in rural Canada,” Lenehen added. “We cannot wait to get started, making better Internet service available to our loyal customers, and bringing 5G services to our home Province.”
Other Canadian carriers, including Bell, are also pursuing 5G capabilities. Bell has successfully tested 5G technology and also is pushing the limits of LTE technology. We reported last month that Bell’s LTE Advanced (LTE-A) wireless network had delivered data speeds of a Gigabit per second (Gbps) in recent deployment testing.
Image courtesy of flickr user Neil Tackaberry.
