'Absolutely necessary': ultra-high speed internet coming to Newmarket

Town launches internet service provider to build fibre-optic broadband network

Yorkregion.com
June 14, 2018
Adam Martin-Robbins

The bad news is you’ll no longer be able to blame the slow internet connection in your office for missing a deadline. On the upside, you’ll have no trouble streaming your favourite Netflix shows or posting selfies on Instagram, during your lunch break of course.

That’s right, Newmarket businesses will soon have access to an "ultra-high speed” fibre-optic broadband network thanks to a newly launched “community-owned” internet service provider.

The firm, dubbed Envi, is owned by the Town of Newmarket and Tay Township as a subsidiary of Newmarket Hydro Holdings Inc. and Tay Hydro Inc., which provide electricity distribution to the two communities.

Envi’s focus, at least initially, is to hook up businesses across the community to a broadband network with speeds up to 100 times faster than “older, existing networks,” Jim Gragtmans, Envi general manager, told a small crowd gathered at Riverwalk Commons June 13 for the official launch.

“We’re building state-of-the-art, fibre-optic network infrastructure that will help ensure Newmarket’s businesses can compete on a global basis and that our residents can participate in the digital economy at any speed that they choose,” he said.

The plan is to rollout the network in four phases starting with a ring of businesses located along stretches of Harry Walker Parkway, Mulock Drive, Yonge Street and Davis Drive, Gragtmans said.

Following that, it will be expanded inside and outside the ring.

Since 2014, enhancing broadband internet service in Newmarket has been a priority for town council and, in particular, Mayor Tony Van Bynen, as part of the town’s economic development strategy.

The town, through the hydro holding company, expects to invest between $4.5 million and $5 million in the initiative with plans to create a self-sustaining, for-profit business, Van Bynen said.

“There’s a very strong business case for this,” he said. “When you think about the economic value: the jobs that it will create; the $28 million in new salaries and wages that will be available through our community; the way that businesses can expand because now they can reach out into global marketplaces without fractured communication sets ... it’s the kind of investment that is just absolutely necessary.”

For more information visit, envinetwork.com.