Frequently Asked Questions

Phase 1 – Construction of Long Haul Network Routes, which include the Matawa First Nation Remote Communities, are roughly 68% complete. The remaining sections for Phase 1 are targeted for a completion date of September 2024.

Phase 2 – Construction for the Long Haul Network Routes, which include Ginoogaming, Long Lake #58, and Constance Lake are targeted for a completion date of September 2025.

Residential service plans will be offered at the minimum speed of 50 Megabits bi-directional per second (Mbps). This is sufficient for streaming 4K video and web browsing on at least two devices per household. Higher speed plans will be offered overtime.

For the Phase 1 network, internet service will be reliable unless there is a cut to the fibre-optic cable. In that case, service would go down for locations beyond the cut in the direction to the west of Aroland until the damage can be repaired. Fibre cuts can be remotely detected within seconds using state-of-the-are software being purchased. Fibre and spare equipment items are being purchased to allow restoration to proceed as quickly as repair crews can come on site. In the future, when facilities are available, we plan to have a second geographically diverse route in Northwestern Ontario. An network outage could still occur if there are two simultaneous sources of failure occurring on the network at the same time.

We will ensure that industry network surveillance monitoring tools are in place to prevent unauthorized intrusion into the network. It is not uncommon even for small internet service providers to detect and successfully prevent hundreds of thousands of unauthorized intrusion attempts each day using commonly available industry tools ; however, all Internet users should be aware of internet safety procedures to prevent hacking of their devices and phishing attempts to convince users to provide personal information, including bank account and credit card numbers, that would allow unauthorized use of their accounts.

Yes, this will definitely improve transfer rates for documents, videos, and other media content versus satellite services.

Every household will be offered the ability to be connected to the Rapid Lynx internet service at affordable rates. Matawa First Nations Management and the Matawa First Nations communities are committed to ensuring that every home will have access to the Rapid Lynx service.

Rapid Lynx will offer high-speed Internet that can be used to download channels available to cable TV users. Streaming allows Rapid Lynx subscribers options for alternatives to cable TV packages and choose what they want to watch, including televisions channels, news, sports, movies, documentaries, games, music and other types of online content and applications of interest to them. Rapid Lynx users will be able to use the internet to place video calls using internet applications like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. These applications allow online callers to share images and documents during the call.

Rapid Lynx will not offer cellular service at inception, but plans to develop partnerships with mobile carriers to bring reliable cellular coverage to remote northern Ontario, Rapid Lynx will support Wi-Fi calling, which will allow subscribers to use a smartphone to make calls over the internet instead of routing the calls over a cellular network.

Community members will have opportunities to pursue various positions such as: clearing crews, machine operators and other types of jobs. Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen Employment & Training Services (KKETS) is developing education and training programs to provide pathways to employment by Rapid Lynx when it is operational.  Typical broadband system positions include engineering support, fusion splicers, service installation, field maintenance support, fiber installation, facilities management, customer support, order management, network monitoring and security monitoring.

The backbone network is over 1,000 kms long, with roughly 70% being constructed underground and in very challenging terrain. Some of the terrain includes boulder fields and bedrock. The construction season is only an estimated 8 months due to weather and terrain. Initially, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced community closures, long delays, and negatively impacted the supply chain in terms of availability and pricing. Other factors that contribute to construction delays especially for the winter road access areas, include winter road availability. If all the stars do not align within the narrow window of winter road availability, material availability, all the various logistics coordination required to get materials and equipment to the winter road meet point to make the journey, construction in certain sections could be delayed by up to a year. Lastly, community cooperation and support for the project is also very important and critical to avoid delays in construction.