The Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN), a non-profit organization created by the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus (EOWC), announced with Rogers that improved cell service is now available in rural areas in eastern Ontario.
Regions covered in this announcement include areas surrounding Maxville, Greenfield, Glen Robertson and Wendover.
The service improvement is a part of the EORN’s C$300 million Cell Gap Project that aims to improve cellular service quality across rural eastern Ontario. The federal and provincial governments contributed C$71 million each and an additional C$10 million came from EOWC and members of the Eastern Ontario Mayor’s Caucus (EOMC).
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Rogers was selected to spearhead the network expansion through a “competitive bidding process.” It will build more than 300 new telecommunication towers and will upgrade more than 300 existing sites by 2025. Rogers has already upgraded 260 sites, and construction of new towers is underway.
Through the project, EORN promises to bring voice calling services to 99 per cent of the people living in rural eastern Ontario, as well as cover at least 95 percent of the area with standard-definition level services for video conferencing and streaming. Additionally, 85 per cent of the area will receive cellular service capable of supporting high-definition video streaming, particularly in areas where traditional broadband isn’t available.
All current and future infrastructure expansions will support the transition to 5G.
The project page says the project will create more than 3,000 full-time equivalent jobs and C$420 million in new business revenue over 10 years.