BCE Inc. is dramatically increasing its spending plans as the company builds out its broadband fibre and wireless networks.

The telecom giant announced Thursday it is earmarking between $1 billion and $1.2 billion in additional spending over the next two years, a move it said would help double the size of its next-generation 5G network and add up to 900,000 fibre and rural wireless home internet locations in the next year alone.

That investment over two years is in addition to BCE’s usual $4 billion in annual capital spending, and will be in part funded by proceeds from its sale of data centres to Equinix Inc. in October 2020.

In a television interview, BCE President and CEO Mirko Bibic said the spending plan will not only benefit BCE’s rural customers, but also help the company entrench itself as a dominant force in those rural areas and ultimately flow through to the bottom line.

“Given the circumstances we’re all in, with COVID-19, it’s coming at the right time for our customers and the communities they live in,” he said. “Also, it’s great news for our investors, our shareholders, because our advanced broadband strategy is driving growth, and ultimately that supports the growing dividend that shareholders come to expect from us.

BCE, which is the parent company of BNN Bloomberg through its Bell Media division, said its capital spending will help support the economic recovery from the pandemic, which has seen millions of Canadians shift to remote work and has driven up demand for reliable internet infrastructure. The company estimates the infrastructure buildout will contribute $2 billion to the domestic economy and could create approximately 5,300 direct and indirect jobs.

BCE’s focus on improving the rural network could help assuage some concerns stemming from Ottawa, after Canada’s telecom incumbents butted heads with regulators in 2020 over wholesale rates. BCE had warned that rural infrastructure spending could be impacted by a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) decision on those rates, which dictate the price incumbents can charge newer entrants to piggyback on existing infrastructure.

In spite of the initial disagreement, Bibic said the current regulatory environment recognizes the telecom industry’s needs and the imperative to encourage capital investment.

“Right now, [the regulatory environment] is stable. Last August, the federal government and the minister of industry, Minister [Navdeep] Bains at the time, he actually sent the file back to our regulator, the CRTC, saying that we need to be very careful not to undermine investments, particularly in rural,” he said. “I think that’s a signal that the federal government really does want more investment.”

BNN Bloomberg is a division of Bell Media, which is owned by BCE.