The initial service area was determined by a number of factors:

Standard Broadband has an existing customer base in the proposed project area. Our customers have been loyal to us for many years and we wanted to ensure we continued to provide the best service possible to our clients.

The area was geographically close to our existing fibre optic backbone with a network access terminal about 500M away from Derry Rd and Bell School Line. This would allow the project to quickly get underway.

The overall size of the initial area was important. Standard Broadband will be investing 60% of the overall project costs and we are seeking funding assistance for the remaining 40% from the Universal Broadband Fund’s Rapid Response Stream. Projects funded by this source must be completed by November 2021, so overall size of the area was taken into consideration to ensure the project could be completed by November 2021.

Yes. Standard Broadband will continue to expand our FTTH network into other areas of rural Burlington to the west of the current project in the coming years. At this time plans are not finalized. We do however expect to release more details in September 2021 on future expansions for 2022.

Standard Broadband’s FTTH service offerings are created based on ensuring a minimum service of 50Mbps/10Mbps is available to all FTTH customers. We also look at what other service offerings are available in larger urban markets and try to create additional comparable services packages for our clients both in terms of speed and monthly pricing.

All residential services, including those from the large carriers, are known as “up to”. Our network is no different. All of our residential packages are considered to be “up to” speeds. There are many external factors that impact the speed you receive that are beyond the control of our network.

Standard Broadband does however stand behind our network and we will ensure that all speeds provided are available end-to-end on our network. This means that from the subscriber’s modem to the edge of our network where packets of data leave to other networks, we will ensure that the speed subscribed to is available. Many rural customers are connected using wireless technology of some sort (LTE or Fixed Wireless), these technologies have a limited amount of bandwidth that is shared across all the subscribers. In the case of wireless it is significantly harder for any service provider to ensure customer speeds because of this shared component. With our Fibre powered network each home has a dedicated connection to our community aggregation node and there is never a sharing of available bandwidth. In other words, everyone on the street can be using the service at full capacity all at the same time.

A cable known as a service drop wire is brought to the side of your homes from one of our ground level boxes or vaults. These boxes are located throughout the community and are installed flush to grade in the municipal right of way. The cable is directly buried in the ground use a small vibratory plow at a depth of 8-12″. A small box is installed at the side of the house this box serves the point where the outdoor cable enters the home. The cable is then run to the location in the home where the modem will be installed. Our installation technician will ensure to repair and seal the hole made to bring the cable in to the home.

A conduit to the street from the house provided by the subscriber can be used however each is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The minimum size of the conduit must be 19mm and it must not contain any tight corners or bends. A pull string installed in the conduit will also be required. At times, if large enough, we can share it with a phone line but we cannot share with electrical, ever. Conduits again are on a case-by-case basis but can save the customer some money on the installation. If you have a conduit please contact our customer service team and we would be happy to review your specific situation with you.