Xplornet Acquires Rural Manitoba Internet Provider Swift High Speed

Xplornet accelerates its broadband fibre expansion to over 7,000 premises in Southeast Manitoba with this acquisition

WOODSTOCK, NB – Today, Xplornet Communications Inc., Canada’s leading rural-focused broadband provider, announced the acquisition of Swift High Speed, a facilities-based rural broadband service provider headquartered in Steinbach, Manitoba and operating in Southeast Manitoba.

Using its state-of-the-art network, Swift High Speed provides fibre-to-the-home and fixed wireless services to over 6,000 customers across rural southeastern Manitoba. Through this agreement, Xplornet has acquired all of Swift High Speed’s customers and operations including 218 km of fibre optic network and 119 broadcast tower locations. As part of this acquisition, Swift High Speed is splitting off its employees and equipment and will launch a new service based fibre optic installation business under the name of Swift Underground with the same ownership group. Swift High Speed customers can expect the same friendly, local service from Swift Underground as Xplornet has retained the new organization to operate the existing network and build our new fibre-to-the-home network in the region.

“With this acquisition, Xplornet is accelerating its plan to deploy fibre to homes and businesses in rural southeast Manitoba,” said Bill Macdonald, EVP of Business Development at Xplornet. “And, we are eager to work with Swift Underground to accelerate Xplornet’s fibre-to-the-home deployment plans in Southeast Manitoba”.

This acquisition is a cornerstone to Xplornet’s fibre-to-the-home and 5G rollout in the province of Manitoba. This phase of the rollout will see the Company invest $40 million to bring high-speed broadband services to over 14,000 homes in the region with over 7,000 new homes having access to fibre-to-the-home services.

“We’re proud of what we’ve built at Swift and the incredible customer base we’ve had the privilege of serving,” said Evan Schroeder, President of Swift High Speed. “Our goal from day 1 was to improve services to our local friends and family. We’re excited to assist Xplornet as they continue to build on our legacy and push the buildout of cutting-edge fibre-to-the-home networks further and faster into rural Manitoba. We are delighted to work with Xplornet to enhance the service experience for our current and new customers as we expand fibre into the region far beyond what we were capable of doing on our own.”

In recent years, Xplornet has focused on building its network in Manitoba. With both Xplornet Mobile and Xplornet Enterprise Solutions headquartered in Brandon, Manitoba, as well as last year’s acquisition of CCI Wireless and its Manitoba subsidiary WiBand Communications, Xplornet has been executing on its plans to invest in Manitoba with the goal of providing rural Manitobans with improved and reliable Internet and cellular service offering. The acquisition of Swift High Speed builds on Xplornet’s fibre and wireless network to connect Manitobans to what matters.