By Nancy Pagé

Internet speed has taken a dramatic jump, making working from home more viable for many people in this area. It’s an improvement over slower speeds residents became accustomed to over the years. In April 2020, Cogeco purchased a local service provider, Internexe (Iteract), replacing the usual satellite and cable services with ‘Fibre To The Home’ which will greatly increase Internet speed.

Download speed – and that’s the one that is perhaps most important because it brings streaming services, such as Netflix and Crave, to your house – could be as fast as 1,000 megabytes per second (Mbps) compared to the fastest speed available in the past, about 25 Mbps. Upload speed is also much faster. More dependable, faster internet service is important when watching television programs and movies, surfing the web, sending large email attachments and gaming.

Fibre is more reliable, especially when compared to a satellite connection and cable service. However, Axion and Bell Canada are successfully working constantly to improve and upgrade their systems in the region. Older computers might not handle the fastest new speeds, but it will still be faster than it used to be. The first expansion will be in town and will spread to outlying areas.