Connecting Students Across Ontario with Faster Internet

Ministry of Education

Province Investing in Broadband Access for All Students

Guelph, ON – May 15, 2017

The province is improving access to high-speed broadband connectivity in schools across Ontario – particularly in northern, rural and remote schools – to provide all students with reliable and equitable access to learning resources.

Education Minister Mitzie Hunter and Liz Sandals, President of Treasury Board‎ and MPP for Guelph, visited Westminster Woods Public School in Guelph today to announce Ontario’s investment to improve broadband infrastructure across the province. The first wave of 182 schools will impact 73,000 students, including those in the Upper Grand District and Wellington Catholic District School Boards.

Improving broadband connectivity and access ensures that students from every region of the province have equitable access to online information, courses and resources needed for 21st century learning.

Depending on the needs of individual schools, infrastructure upgrades will include:
•Investing in new fibre optic infrastructure to connect schools to an internet service provider
•Improving network capacity to handle large amounts of data required to use new technologies in the classroom
•Ensuring a broadband speed of 1 Megabit per second per student and updating the network design to be more student-friendly

Providing equitable access to broadband services for students is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives.