MANITOULIN—An Xplornet Communications official says that completion of the towers on Manitoulin, designed to improve both Internet speed and reliability at a fair price-as part of a program to deliver more speed and data to rural Canada, will be done this month.
“We are projecting construction of all our sites on Manitoulin Island to be completed by the end of the month,” James Maunder, vice president-communications and public affairs with Xplornet, told the Recorder earlier this week.
“However, we still require access to fibre backhaul infrastructure in order to connect them,” said Mr. Maunder. “We expect this access to arrive within the next 60 days, at which point we will be in a position to provide service to customers in the region.”
Xplornet’s fibre providers in the region are typically Bell and Eastlink.
The Xplornet project includes towers being constructed at several sites. Xplornet feels that local residents will be very happy in terms of the level of service, speed and reliability it will provide to customers.
In December 2016 Xplornet announced liftoff of EchoStar XIX, the world’s largest commercial satellite, delivering more speed and more data to rural Canada.
Soon after the company announced the successful liftoff of ViaSat 2, the highest capacity communications ever launched, Mr. Maunder told the Recorder. “This was launched with a partner in California and was launched in the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.” Visa-Sat 2 is one half of Xplornet’s new satellite broadband program, which triples Xplornet’s current satellite Internet capacity. ViaSat-2 is expected to deliver more speed and data at affordable prices for Xplornet’s customers. Xplornet’s new Internet service will deliver the fastest residential speed offered via satellite in Canada, at up to 25 megabits per second (download).
For potential customers who call in and sign up with Direct Satellite and Security before the LTE towers go live, the company will provide free installation.
