Telus wants to reach out and touch town council to discuss bringing ultra high-speed fibre optic internet to the community.

Mayor Jeff Genung says he has been in discussion with Telus officials who had initially been communicating with Town Councillor Morgan Nagel after they got wind of the town's Smart Cities proposal.

He's not sure exactly what they propose but he says he's invited them to come speak publicly about their ideas.

"I haven't had any conversation with them about anything, I haven't heard anything about what they are able to provide or not, what they are able to do or not. I'd like to have that conversation in public so everyone can listen in and we can get some answers."

Genung says the town is open to meet with anybody, anytime.

"If they want to have a conversation with anybody about fibre or providing services to the town at any level, the town admin would always be happy to talk."

A representative of the telecommunications corporation contacted Town Councillor Morgan Nagel after the town's Smart Cities proposal made the news. Nagel had publicly questioned the merit of the town getting into the business of providing a townwide internet service and that word travelled.

"He expressed to me that Telus had actually in the past reached out to Cochrane and he said they didn't feel there was a very open response from the town at that time."

Pointing out there's a new council and town CAO, Nagel encouraged Telus to reach out again. 

"He's quite confident that Telus can bring the ultra high-speed fibre optic interbit per second internet to Cochrane free of cost to the taxpayers," says Nagel. "Of course, people would have to pay a monthly bill to get access to that sort of thing, but I still think it's worth exploring to get all the information and I know Telus wants to come and give a presentation to council in public."

Nagel is uncertain how much it will cost to subscribe, but he doesn't imagine it will be cheap.

"If you want the high-end technology, it isn't going to be free. That's part of my skepticism toward the town's proposal. We're saying we can create something at like at a tenth of the cost of the private sector. And even if that is true, I have my doubts as to how long we can properly maintain the technology. Quite frankly, our town struggles to do an adequate job of removing snow and enforcing bylaws. I don't think we should be adding in a complex set of duties like managing the internet. If someone's modem goes down, are you going to call the town to have someone come down to fix it? I just can't see that."

He also doesn't like the idea of the town controlling everyone's data and also believes it's simply best left to the private sector because of the constant reinvestment required.

"Quite frankly, the government has enough on its plate and we struggle to do everything that we need to do. I'm never in a rush to add more work on to the government's plate."

He doesn't like how the idea of seeking Smart Cities funding went from getting a $50 million grant to now pursuing $5 million towards a project that will cost $20 million to implement.