Eastern Ontario Regional Network’s Jason St-Pierre updated Mississippi Mills council recently on his non-profit’s cell-gap project to improve cellular connectivity across Eastern Ontario. Jason explained how they were approached to start the project in 2020.
After an open process to choose a cell provider to partner with, Rogers Communication was chosen and they committed up to $150M in funding to match what the federal, provincial, and municipal governments had put into the pot.
Their goal is to provide 99% coverage in Eastern Ontario for voice communication, and 95% coverage for email, web-browsing and social media use. Jason warns that those customers not using Rogers wouldn’t see the full benefits of their work.
Both Bell and Telus were offered space on new EORN cell towers to lease, but haven’t taken up those opportunities as of yet.
However 911 coverage is provided no matter what provider a customer may use.
Story by Brian Turner
