Xplornet infrastructure acquisition aids fibre network expansion

Canadian rural broadband provider Xplornet Communications has purchased the fibre internet infrastructure of the Municipality of the County of Annapolis in Nova Scotia. 

The deal is designed to ensure that more than 8,500 residents and businesses have access to reliable, high-speed internet service through a fibre optic network. Xplornet will acquire, manage, and expand the fibre network that the county began installing several years ago, which is capable of delivering up to 1Gb/s service to residential customers and up to 10Gb/s service for businesses.

This builds on the provider’s commitment to invest $500 million over five years to deploy state-of-the-art fibre and fixed wireless technologies in its facilities-based network in order to deliver broadband services to rural Canadians. The company already has FTTH projects underway in Nova Scotia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Allison Lenehan, president and chief executive officer of Xplornet said: ‘This is good news for Xplornet and for the people of Annapolis County. We admire the county's initiative in spearheading its own network and we look forward to building on that by expanding coverage and delivering high-quality service to the people of the region. We are committed to providing next-generation high-speed Internet to homes and businesses in Annapolis County, and across the province of Nova Scotia.’

Annapolis County warden Alan Parish called the deal ‘a very positive outcome.’ He added: ‘The County realised that it did not have the necessary manpower or expertise to attend to the many regulatory, financial, legal and administrative obligations ownership demanded, nor was it prudent to court the business risk involved in the project.’