A report will go before council Monday night, outlining a plan made by Entegrus and Teksavvy to bring high-speed internet to rural parts of Chatham-Kent.
President of Entegrus Tomo Matesic first brought the topic up during a council meeting in March. He went over plans to apply for funding from the federal government's Connect to Innovate (CTI) program.
The CTI program is set to provide $500-million to install and upgrade fibre broadband infrastructure in rural areas across the country by 2021.
“We feel that this would definitely provide a strong foundation for growth in Chatham-Kent so we’re very eager to pursue this opportunity,” he says.
Matesic says the CTI funding would support 75% of the project costs which is approximately $25.2-million.
On Monday, they'll ask council to support the project and invest money.
"We would be requesting 25% funding from the municipality, and that funding would be matched 50/50 with TekSavvy,” says Matesic.
The application deadline for the CTI program is April 20. Matesic adds they won't hear back on whether or not they'll get funding until September.
However, if they're CTI application is not accepted, Matesic says they'll still move forward with the project but it won't be the same.
"Our plans are to move forward with the development of fibre in Chatham-Kent regardless but it'll be a much slower and much more focused approach," he says. "The CTI funding allows us to leverage our investment dollars to expand the project across all of Chatham-Kent -- rather than just focusing on smaller, concentrated areas."
He adds although the project isn't targeted specifically at connecting homes and businesses to high-speed internet, it provides the opportunity.
"The application we're applying for is actually what's called 'backbone funding' so it provides service to the community," he says. Once the community is connected, Matesic says it'll be "open access" so specific locations can then be connected to the fibre line.
-With files from Caryn Ceolin
