Yellowknife, NWT – Northwestel says internet speeds on offer in Hay River are now three times faster.

Residents of the town now have access to speeds of up to 15Mb/s, up from the previous maximum of 5Mb/s – if they sign up to pay the $119.95 monthly charge for the new service.

“We’ve been hearing for a while that customers were looking for faster speeds. For the last year or so, we’ve been trying to make that a possibility and working on upgrades in Hay River,” said Northwestel’s Eric Clement.

“We needed to upgrade the electronics and we are finally ready to announce we have brought that new speed to the community.”

Behchoko received a similar upgrade at the same time.

Clement says other communities in the North can expect upgrades in 2015, though Northwestel does not yet have a definitive list of the communities set to benefit next.

This story was updated to clarify that residents need to pay an additional fee to access the new, faster service.

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