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Despite the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s declaration that broadband is a basic service, about 3 per cent of Canada’s 14.1 million households (about 423,000 homes) didn’t have access to broadband by the end of 2016, according to the CRTC. Only 39 per cent of rural and remote households have access to the CRTC’s high-speed internet targets of 50 megabits per second download and 10 Mbps upload speeds, compared to 96 per cent of urban households.

The CRTC created a $750-million fund to tackle the problem, but more than a year later it is still figuring out a process to allocate the cash. It is expected to release details on the fund sometime this year. Meantime, the Feds continue to announce smaller projects from the Connect to Innovate fund as well as the $305-million Connecting Canadians fund launched by the previous government.

The new projects include Wednesday’s announcement of a subsea cable that will connect communities from Vancouver to Prince Rupert and around Vancouver Island.

The announcement in the Maritimes attracted criticism for the high cost per household of about $18,000. In Manitoba, however, the cost dropped to about $3,600 per household. That’s more in-line with costs in cities, where analysts estimate it costs about $1,000 to connect fibre to a home.

Whether critics agree with the spending, the federal funding is helping communities that could only envy digital access enjoyed by urbanites.