Bell Canada is still waiting for several approvals for its purchase of MTS before it can begin rolling out a number of its products to customers in Manitoba.

One those products is Bell's Gigabit Fibe service, which will deliver Internet speeds on average up to 20 times faster than those currently offered to Manitoba customers. The good news is this service won't be limited to Winnipeg customers only.

"Anyone who is an ultimate MTS TV subscriber today, whether in Winnipeg or in rural areas, will be able to get access to Gigabit Fibe and Fibe TV, Bell's broadband television servic, once this transaction closes," said Mirko Bibic, executive vice president of corporate development for Bell Canada. "There are about 50,000 people who have access to Ultimate TV outside Winnipeg, so those are the folks that will be able to get Fibe TV."

Part of Bell's $1-billion dollar investment includes bringing its fibre optic network to towns in Manitoba that don't yet have that kind of infrastructure through its fibre-to-the-home program.

Bell recently announced plans to roll out fibre-to-the-home in Flin Flon. According to Bibic, Bell's rural customer base is important to the company.

"Just look at our track record in Ontario and Quebec and in the Atlantic provinces where we have a very sizeable subscriber base in rural parts of the country. For instance, we're in the process of deploying a technology called LTE Advanced which offers the fastest wireless speeds anywhere in the world, and when we roll out technologies like that we don't just focus on Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. We also deploy in rural parts of the country and our wireless network today provides coverage to 98 per cent of Canadians. That's just one proof point on the importance of rural subscribers."

All of these products will soon be offered to Manitoba customers once all the regulatory approvals have come through from the CRTC, Competition Bureau and the Federal government. Bibic says they are hopeful those approvals will happen this year so that they can begin their significant investments in the province.