Camrose Broadband
Broadband is a necessity in our current social, economic, and political landscape, and we need to treat it as such. I am proposing the creation of a non-profit, community-owned broadband service that ends the practice of monopolistic, anti-competitive telecom giants draining rural Alberta's pockets.
The Problem
Unequal access to telecommunications services for rural Albertans has been a problem for longer than Alberta's been a province. Canadians pay some of the highest prices on earth for our broadband, and in rural Alberta, many of us can't even reach the benchmarks for what's considered "High-speed internet" in order to allow for a proper comparison to other countries. Even if we pay for a plan from Telus that promises that much, it's rare that Telus actually delivers - but they still charge an arm and a leg for it.
This has profound effects on Camrosians - for residents, this means poor access to the digital world for education, entertainment, and communication. For businesses, this means thousands of dollars in lost productivity, extortionate broadband costs, and buying equipment to try to fix the problem. Nobody in likes their ISP - they overcharge, underdeliver, and thanks to their anti-competitive practices, most of us have no choice but to keep paying them despite everything else.
For many people, especially young people and business owners, a lack of reliable internet access is a fundamental dealbreaker when considering Camrose as a home. If we want to maintain our viability as a rural hub, and want to become a bigger, better, and wealthier city, we need better broadband - without it, we will never be able to grasp the opportunities of the future.
The Cause
The cause of this problem is pretty simple - the Canadian telecommunications industry is one of the most anti-competitive, anti-consumer industries in this country. For most people in Camrose, our options for home internet are:
1) Telus, or
2) A company leasing Telus' lines and charging you a little extra for the exact same service you'd get from Telus.
As was made painfully clear to everyone over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, broadband is a necessity for us. It's necessary for education, for business, for communication, and for entertainment - and for-profit companies like Telus are not trying to provide quality service. They're trying to make money. And that has meant that rural Alberta's infrastructure is neglected because we're not as profitable as the big cities where the companies actually have to compete with one another. There are parts of Camrose that don't even have cell service while Edmonton and Calgary are getting 5G speeds - the current model prioritizes urban Albertans, and if we don't fight for ourselves, we will get nothing.
My Proposal
My proposal is to build, as a municipal infrastructure project, a fibre optic broadband network that connects to every single building in this city - and to provide broadband services through a non-profit internet services provider owned by the municipality. Within a decade, every single Camrosian, at home and at work, would have access to internet speeds of at least 1 Gbps - speeds that are almost entirely unheard of in Canada, save for communities like Olds and Brooks that have already embarked on this project - at a lower price than they can find from any current telecom provider for high-speed internet.
Now, I know that sounds extremely ambitious, and maybe a little too good to be true. However, there is a precedent. The Town of Olds, starting in 2004, embarked on a similar project - to explore how to bring high-speed internet to their rural community. After years of planning and consideration, they began construction in 2011. Today, they have speeds of up to 1 Gbps in every single building in their town, and they're not alone - the City of Brooks, in June of 2021, reached an agreement for construction of a similar project that's capable of providing speeds as fast as 10 Gbps to residents.
It is ambitious, but thanks to these precedents, we know this is a viable solution for rural Albertans that lowers prices while increasing quality of service. The Camrose Broadband Network is the rare kind of proposal that simultaneously lowers cost of living, increases quality of living, and boosts our economy - and can pay for itself within the decade. This is a huge opportunity for Camrose to stand out as we continue into the digital economy, and allows us to preserve and grow our city even more.
My proposal would mandate that the network is to be run as a non-profit, meaning that its rates will not be adjusted or amended for the purposes of generating a profit. My proposal would also guarantee that prices will be consistent and uniform across the city - no neighbourhood, community, house, or business will get different pricing or different quality of service. Whether you live in Sparling, Marler, Valleyview, or the Southside Mobile Home Park, your rates will be the same. Whether your business is in the West End, Downtown, East End, or Mohler Industrial, your business will get the same rates. This will also include an aggressive expansion of public Wi-Fi hubs to make sure that you're never far away from making a connection.
My proposal will help us build the future in Camrose - a more fair, equitable, and affordable future for everyone.
The Outcome
Once I am elected, a proposal for the creation of a Camrose Broadband Network will be the first thing I present, and I will personally do whatever is needed to make sure that construction begins immediately. This proposal would include municipal ownership of the infrastructure as well as the actual service provider itself to make sure that every Camrosian is assured that their ISP is solely in it for them - and solely accountable to them, rather than private shareholders.
Construction will begin in 2026 and be completed by 2031 at the absolute latest, and service will be rolled out to neighbourhoods as the network is built to allow Camrosians to immediately start benefiting from the infrastructure and start covering the costs of the network. This approach also allows us to stress-test the system to make sure we're on-track with our capacity predictions, and to allow us to pursue an aggressive expansion and rollout plan without having to make big cuts to other parts of the City budget or increase taxes.
This all sounds great, but what are the actual packages you might be choosing between? My proposal would guarantee that the network would offer a no-frills high-speed internet package (minimum of 100 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up) at-cost, meaning that low-income Camrosians who just need basic internet access can easily and affordably get access to high-quality, high-speed internet. From there, though, the sky is the limit. Current fibre optic technology can allow us to provide speeds as high as 1 Gbps - or even 10 Gbps - and I intend for us to be able to provide those kinds of speeds at affordable, accessible rates for Camrosians.
Within five years, every building in Camrose will be on one of Canada's fastest broadband networks, and will be paying some of Canada's lowest broadband prices. This will include apartment buildings and condo buildings, which tend to get left behind in a lot of these discussions - they're part of this too. Nobody in Camrose will be forced to join the network, however - if you would prefer to stick with Telus or another provider, or simply not have broadband, you will absolutely be able to do so without penalty.