Construction has begun on phase one of the Municipality of Pictou County’s rural Internet
Municipality of Pictou County Warden Robert Parker (left) and Deputy Warden Wayne Murray sign a contract with Nova Communications, a division of ROCK Networks, to begin the engineering planning and network construction of phase one of the Municipality’s rural internet project. (Muncipality of Pictou County photo)
project.
The municipality recently approved $11 million to fund the first phase, which will see residents in the Lyons Brook, Hardwood Hill, Abercrombie and Granton areas have access to high speed internet.
Warden Robert Parker says the COVID-19 pandemic has both highlighted the need for the network and slowed down the start of construction. He says the pandemic has shown how much the world relies on digital networking for information and a sense of community.
The network will see about two-thirds of homes served by fibre to receive speeds of up to One Gigabyte per second.
A consortium led by Nova Communications has been chosen to perform engineering planning and network construction.
Parker says the municipality is exploring options that will provide an interim solutiOn to serve more residents as the fibre optic network is built