Telus poised for major investment in Calgary fibre optic network
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Telus is poised to make a major investment in its fibre-optic network in Calgary similar to the $1-billion initiative recently announced for Edmonton.
The telecom giant says it’s working with the City of Calgary on permission to install its infrastructure but could not put a specific dollar amount on the proposed investment.
Telus last week announced it will spend more than $1 billion in Edmonton to connect more than 90 per cent of that city’s homes and businesses directly to the company’s state-of-the-art fibre optic network over the next six years.
“Calgary has been seen by Telus as a critical and important market,” said Tony Geheran, its executive vice-president and president of broadband networks. “We’re under discussion with the (City of Calgary) so I can’t say too much about it. We haven’t yet concluded terms on how we go about doing that.”
Geheran said the eventual financial investment in Calgary will be similar in magnitude to Edmonton, adding the company is hopeful talks with the City of Calgary will conclude this year.
“We would very much like to see Calgary progress … and not be left behind,” he said.
Geheran said Edmonton is the first city in the initiative since Telus was able to negotiate terms on how it would roll out. New fibre optic network has already been or will be connected in several Calgary communities across about 10 per cent of the city.
“If you’re a consumer and you’re signing up to have the Telus fibre at your premise, it means you’ve got a superhighway to your home that is basically infinitely expandable and can support your needs,” said Geheran.
The home is increasingly becoming a pathway for smart technology with multiple devices being connected, he said.
Telus says its fibre-optic network is among the most advanced communications infrastructure in the world. When the service is launched in Edmonton later this year, local residents and businesses will be able to take advantage of Internet speeds of up to 150 megabits per second — a dramatically faster service made possible by a direct fibre-optic network connection, it said.
It said local health-care providers, educators and technology companies will also be able to draw upon the gigabit-enabled network.
“We’ve determined that the legacy or the historical copper access infrastructure is not sufficient to meet the growth curve that we can see,” said Geheran. “In order to leverage copper to do that you increasingly have to put electronics closer and closer to the premise they’re serving.
“Fibre really does afford us the opportunity to create a path between our central office and termination point be it business or residence. It is fairly limitless on capacity.”
Telus said it plans to invest an additional $4.2 billion in Alberta through 2018.
Earlier this year, the company announced it is investing $212 million in new infrastructure and facilities in Calgary and area this year to enhance wireless capacity and speed, connect homes and businesses directly to its fibre optic network, pilot Telus Health programs, and continue construction of the Telus Sky tower in the downtown.
The latest Statistics Canada report on Internet use found 83 per cent of Canadians aged 16 and older used the Internet for personal use from any location in 2012. The highest proportion of Internet users were in British Columbia, at 87 per cent, followed by Alberta at 85 per cent.
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