Okotoks could become a hot bed for fibre optic broadband service.
The Town of Okotoks is working the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) to study the potential of bringing high speed Internet service to the region.
The study is being conducted by Craig Dobson of Taylor Warwick Consulting and will cost $60,000 to complete. Okotoks economic development has contributed $5,000 toward the study.
“We think there’s a lot of opportunity to look at this collectively,” said Okotoks economic development manager Shane Olson. “We’re looking at improving digital connectivity to get upload and download speeds as fast as possible and for the lowest possible cost.”
High-speed Internet service would benefit schools and medical professions in town, as well as the business community.
“There are cloud companies, data companies, there’s 3D printing for business and they all require high-speed connections,” said Olson.
He said the study would look at the current services in town and what may be possible, such as running conduit into all new development and retrofitting the rest of town.
Another possibility being explored is operating a municipally-owned fibre optic network, similar to the O-NET run by the Town of Olds, which is touted as the fastest Internet in Canada, he said.
Dobson, the consultant conducting the study, was involved in the development of the network in Olds, he said.
According to Bob Miller, economic prosperity lead for the CRP, the same setup could be possible in Okotoks.
“They wanted to position their town for economic growth and they turned to the opportunity to offer fibre optic,” said Miller. “They dug the trenches and laid the fibre, then invited incumbents like Shaw and Telus to provide the service. That didn’t happen, so now they own the fibre and run the service themselves.”
Besides owning and operating the service, he said there are several options available for Okotoks. The bare minimum would be to put infrastructure and regulation in place to allow fibre optic to come to town, he said, similar to providing utility lines for gas or telephone companies.
Beyond that, he said the Town could also decide to lay pipe and have outside providers run their own fibre through it.
“Part of the posturing in the industry is that whoever has their fibre in first has a real advantage,” said Miller. “So companies like Telus or Axia are fighting to be the first fibre provider.”
He said the point is to ensure businesses and residents receive the best connectivity at affordable prices, regardless of how the Town decides to operate its high-speed service.
For the Town of Olds, the best option became running O-NET itself. As a provider, Olds charges $120 per month for 1 gigabyte upload and download speed, whereas Axia charges $700 per month for the same 1 GB speed, Miller said.
“The difference is in the case of Olds, they own the fibre and are the provider and that’s the true cost of doing it,” he said.
The decision about how to run the service does not have to be made just yet, he said. At this time, municipal leaders in the region are meeting to discuss what they want as communities.
The study will provide option for each municipality to help them make decisions.
Working collaboratively, regional partners can decide the best way to bring the fibre optic service to the area, he said.
“Getting the fibre from Calgary to Okotoks is a strategic decision that can impact all municipalities south of Calgary,” said Miller. “If Okotoks has fibre, then other communities just have to tie into Okotoks instead of to Calgary.”
The question of who would own and pay for the line is part of what the regional discussions will address, he said.
The cost of bringing the fibre optic conduit to Okotoks is unknown, though Miller said the impending water pipeline coming from Calgary brings with it great possibility.
“It’s estimated the laying of the fibre into the trench accounts for a small portion of the overall cost, maybe 10 or 15 per cent,” said Miller. “So if they were to lay it in the water pipeline trench when it’s being dug out, that’s a tremendous opportunity.”
In the meantime, he said, all municipalities need to work together to plan how the service will work.
If it is done correctly, he said, the fibre optic lines can also be run from the trench to satellite towers that provide Internet connection to rural areas.
He said rural communities with access to towers stand to benefit from the introduction of fibre optics to the region, and the study includes both urban and rural service.
“Everyone needs to plan it together, talk to each other, so that the line to the urban municipalities doesn’t miss and isolate the rural municipalities,” said Miller.
He said the CRP would like to see the high-speed connection brought to the entire MD of Foothills via satellite towers.
“This is a great opportunity to work together and plan this out,” said Miller. “We need to grow up into our understanding of what’s possible.
“We need to get that knowledge together and move forward with confidence.”
