By Adam Ophus

Meeting minimum standard

Improved high-speed internet making its way to Rocky and Clearwater County

Feb 11, 2021 | 2:56 PM

In an effort to solve some of Rocky Mountain House and Clearwater County’s internet connectivity issues, town and county councillors have chosen to support TELUS in their application for the Universal Broadband Fund.

The fund is a $1.75 billion Government of Canada program to help promote high-speed internet projects across the country with a focus on rural and remote areas.

Funds are only eligible for areas that are considered to not have a 50 Mbps download speed and 10 Mbps upload speed, which parts of Rocky and the vast majority of the county don’t.

This map shows the areas that are considered to have Canada’s minimum high speed internet of 50 Mbps Download and 10 Mbps upload. In orange are 25%-50% of people to meet those requirements, in red is 50%-75%, and in brown is above 75%. (Government of Canada National Broadband Internet Service Availability Map)

TELUS stated that internet has become an essential service and provides access for residents to numerous benefits such as tele-health, distance learning, and telework.

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Clearwater County has already sent in their letter saying that they to have begun a significant project to bring in high speed internet to its residents.

“While the County intends to submit applications for its own project, we also support applications by local Internet service providers as we view this as a significant opportunity for them to potentially partner with us in reaching our goals related to rural broadband,” the letter reads.

The CRTC has also recently approved U.S.-based SpaceX firm’s new Starlink high speed internet for rural and remote areas.

Some local internet users who previously had been getting slow download speeds are reporting getting over 100 Mbps. Its services will only provide for a limited number of residents in an area, and is on a first come first serve basis while in its early stages.