Xplornet setting trend for faster rural internet

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This article was published 14/04/2022 (1499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Xplornet says its acquisition of Full Throttle Networks will benefit thousands of rural internet customers in Manitoba.

Jordan Young, Xplornet’s vice-president of business development for Western Canada, said this month’s move to acquire Winnipeg-based Full Throttle Networks, which offers high-speed internet services in between the city and southeastern Manitoba, complements the company’s existing investment made for the province, which they originally announced in November 2021.

“We’re going to connect over 125,000 rural Manitobans to better high-speed internet by the end of 2023,” Young said.

“This acquisition tucks in with that effort. By being able to work with their client base, we increase our knowledge in the marketplace and we’re able to build something bigger.”

The acquisition of Full Throttle Networks gives Xplornet, Canada’s largest rural-focused broadband internet provider, a combination of a good base of 1,600 residential and commercial customers, a team that can come on board to their operations, and doubles down on their investment to bring their fibre network with 5G technology to more than 350 rural and 30 First Nation communities in the province.

By the end of 2023, Young referred to the company deploying an additional 1,500 kilometres of fibre optic cable, equipping 224 towers with that 5G wireless broadband technology.

The Brandon Sun previously reported the move would allow previous customers of Full Throttle located in the network upgrade areas to have access to download speeds of up to 100 megabytes per second, upload speeds of 10 megabytes per second and speeds of one gigabyte per second in fibre areas once the project is complete.

Xplornet will operate the Full Throttle Network in the short term in partnership with Swift Underground, a construction company in Steinbach, as they continue to expand their rural internet services.

“As we build our fibre and 5G footprint in the province, we’ll migrate customers over to the next generation technology as it becomes available,” Young said.

“We’re able to come together with their community focus and our capital story and be able to create a bigger story for rural Manitobans. What’s important for us is how we deliver that service to rural Canadians. We’re really excited about this.”

Young said they were aware of Full Throttle Networks potentially going to market six to eight months ago, and offered it made sense to create that continuity in their portfolio of network coverage for Manitobans.

Over his 20 years of working in business and telecommunications, Young said witnessing five generations of internet technology evolve has been remarkable. After a significant jump between 3G to 4G models, he said the evolution to 5G technology will give rural Manitobans different ways to think about data, different ways to manage networks and business models and of course, faster download speeds.

“This is the turn of technology that will truly unlock the internet in terms of economic development.”

Living outside of Calgary, he said he has witnessed many smaller Prairie communities lose their commercial base of business, which has in turn resulted in schools disappearing and in some cases, towns drying up. Over the course of the pandemic, however, the evolution in technology is creating a resurgence in the rural lifestyle.

“We’ve proven through COVID-19, remote work is a reality,” Young said.

“You don’t have to be in the office every day. Now people are saying they can get a better quality of life ‘if I live in a small town or acreage, it’s better for my family and me.’ It’s exciting. I would suggest that we’re in a transformational space that we haven’t seen from my generation.”

He said there are no plans to move or close the Xplornet national office in Brandon, which is currently the head location for the company’s commercial services group. Having a head office in Brandon remains a key interest for the company to remain a part of the local community in western Manitoba.

“When you’re in a community like Brandon, call it a mid-size community in that space, you tend to be a little more in touch with your neighbour and you tend to be in touch with what’s important for small and medium business,” Young said.

“This is not a game for rural Canada that gets won from the major downtown urban centres. It’s the blocking and tackling that happens out where the people need the [internet] service. That’s where we’re trying to go.”

» jbernacki@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @JosephBernacki