The opportunity to have the Telus Corporation construct a fibre optic network in Cochrane at no cost to the municipality is intriguing, but Mayor Genung is left with questions and is concerned it may not offer more affordable access to the internet, one of the goals of the town's Smart Cities proposal. 

Telus officials gave town council an overview of its PureFibre Broadband (FTTP) and Wireless deployment program, June 25, that would provide townwide high-speed fibre optic technology. The presentation centred upon the socio-economic benefits of the installation.

It's designed to be a collaborative project between the corporation and the municipality. 

Discussions will follow between town and Telus officials on the finer details before a report comes back to council.

Mayor Jeff Genung says he was left with the impression Telus wouldn't incorporate the town's existing and expanding fibre optics system into the project.

"I think the odds of them wanting to share our fibre is very slim, but I'm not closing the door. I think we need to encourage them to meet with administration and our fibre team and see what comes out of it."

"I'm not saying Cochrane's system is going to be the end all, be all answer to wifi or fibre in Cochrane, but if we can partner and share what we've done so far and the town can benefit from that, I'd be all ears. I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but they were quite reluctant to say they would and they haven't anywhere else in Canada."

While he says the project would be completed at the expense of Telus he wants to hear more details on what the cost will be for users.

"What does the consumer pay for that? That's the argument we're trying to make to have the municipality supplying it as a bit of a uitlity. If we can do it for, say, $20 a month I betcha they're not anywhere near that price."

Genung says having low-cost access to internet is almost becoming essential in today's society.

"At the end of the day, my personal feeling is wifi is almost becoming a right. It's something that we should be providing and whether we do it through private enterprise or through the town, I'm open to either, whatever makes the most sense, but it has to be affordable. It has to level the playing field."

"That's the driver for me. It's connecting everybody at a rate they can afford."

"I don't think we've actually done anything if we've just sped up everybody's upload and download times. That isn't the goal for me."

He also was leery of signing a nondisclosure agreement with Telus should the project proceed. 

As part of it's Smart Cities proposal the town wants to create an open city platform to connect residents at a low cost. It would be treated as a utility and it would appear on monthly bills from the town as a mandatory payment.

The town has already has established FibreWest, Cochrane's own dark fibre network and is currently marketing the product to local businesses.

The Telus presentation resulted in the corporation catching wind of the town's Smart Cities proposal and reached out to Councillor Morgan Nagel. The town councillor had publicly questioned the merit of the town getting into the internet business and was uncertain the town could provide it at such a low price and keep pace with upgrades.

Should the town decide to participate in the Telus program they would be added to the list and at the very earliest the project would start in 2020-21..

Telus has constructed similar systems in 24 other Alberta municipalities.