Xplornet Communications has closed an agreement to acquire Brant Fibre Optics, a network operator providing gigabit speed internet services to enterprise customers in Brant County, southwestern Ontario. Xplornet Executive VP Bill Macdonald said: 'The acquisition of Brant Fibre Optics is an important milestone in our continued focus on increasing our fibre footprint across Ontario to provide our customers with faster speeds and increased bandwidth.' Brooke Hayward, CEO of Brant Municipal Enterprises (BME), noted: 'As a wholly owned corporation of the County of Brant, BME grew the Brant Fibre Optic network over the past eight years to provide high-speed telecommunication services in previously underserved areas throughout the County. BME saw this as an opportune time to sell the fibre network to an organisation positioned to expand the existing fibre-optic backbone directly to more homes and businesses throughout Brant County.'

Xplornet has also announced its readiness to start construction to connect 125,000 homes and businesses in Manitoba to fibre and 5G fixed wireless broadband, following the signing of its Rural Broadband Expansion Agreement with the Government of Manitoba. The agreement covers nearly 350 rural and 30 First Nation communities. Xplornet will gain access to 3,200km of dark fibre backbone from Manitoba Hydro, while also investing to deploy an additional 1,500km of fibre-optics and equip 224 towers with 5G-ready wireless broadband technology. The network is being designed for 50Mbps/10Mbps (down/upload) speeds and above, including speeds of 1Gbps in fibre areas. Construction related to the project is expected to be complete by the end of 2023.

Thanks to TeleGeography for this industry update.