(L-R) Councillor Lonny Kennett, Councillor Dana Depalme, Minister Glubish, Phil Roberts, CEO Valo Networks, Acting Mayor Brent Ramsay, Curtis Herzberg, CAO, Red Deer County in front of conduit for fibre at the Valo Networks Office Building on Wednesday. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

speed connectivity

Red Deer County shares plans to increase broadband services for residents with new funding

Apr 11, 2024 | 11:58 AM

Officials gathered in Red Deer County on Wednesday to discuss their plans for the $8 million investment into broadband services and increased speed connectivity for roughly 1,200 households.

In early March, the provincial and federal governments announced a $112 million investment in the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) initiative to connect over 22,500 homes in Alberta to broadband internet, of which $8 million would be towards Red Deer County residents.

READ: Alberta, Canada governments investing in high-speed internet for rural, Indigenous areas

At the Valo Networks Office building, Minister of Technology & Innovation Nate Glubish said 1,198 households in the 10 County communities of Benalto, Blackfalds, Bowden, Central Park, Condor, Innisfail, Olds, Red Deer, Spruce Lane Acres, and Sylvan Lake would be connected by the end of next construction season.

Curtis Herzberg, County Chief Administrative Officer, said thousands of residents are currently underserved, with some companies even having left certain communities due to the low service impacting their operations.

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“With reliable, high-speed internet, local businesses can compete globally, reaching new markets and customers. It fosters entrepreneurships, allowing our residents to start businesses from the comfort of their homes, and create jobs for our community. Education is another area where broadband is transformative; it enables our students to access world class education, regardless of their geographic location,” he said.

Phil Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of Valo Networks in charge of the project in the County, said they will be using the funds to build three towers, with fibre to connect the towers, to deliver a wireless connection to households.

Phil Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of Valo Networks with fibre that willconnect the towers. (rdnewsNOw/Alessia Proietti)

He says the connections will reach the required minimum speed of 50 megabits per second download and 10 Mbps upload in the farthest communities.

He added that local service providers will now be able to utilize the infrastructure on the open network to compete for the consumer, reducing their risk as they will not have to invest capital in the infrastructure themselves. As a result, this will trickle to the consumer with comparable costs and quality to services found in urban centres.

Herzberg said the announcement is part of Phase 1 of the County’s Broadband plans to create a sustainable network, which includes their separate project to create a Municipally Controlled Corporation called Rural Connect. Broadband has already been connected to the Village of Delburne, Glennifer Lake, and Spruce View.

READ: Public hearing set for next phase in Red Deer County’s broadband internet project

Brent Ramsay, Deputy Mayor and Councillor of the County’s Division 5, said broadband will bring benefits to farmers and more isolated communities through strengthening of social connections.

“I have already seen it in the areas we have connected like Markerville, where they have little to no cell service in the area. This has given residents peace of mind, while also benefiting the local museum to offer online interactive exhibits and expand their reach to classrooms far and wide with digital field trips. Or in Spruce View, where the local hall is a community hub and can now offer public access Wi-Fi. Students have been doing their homework in the parking lot because they can get better internet access than at home,” he said.

Phase 2, Herzberg says, will be focused on achieving higher levels of customer connections so the network is financially sustainable over the long term.

The broadband network will be independent and will support all future information and telecommunication applications such as fiber-to-the premise, Agritech, and 5G mobility.

An initial $780 million investment was equally made by the two governments in 2022, with roughly 201,000 households in the province not having access to reliable high-speed internet at that time. Glubish says that once the announced projects are complete, over 55 per cent of those households will be connected in Alberta, with all ideally by 2027.

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