With new undeveloped land and the Town of Okotoks acquisition of new annexation land from the M.D. of Foothills, the time is now for fibre optic internet installation says a pair of Okotoks Town Councillors.
Tanya Thorn and Matt Rockley brought forth a notice of motion for fibre optic installation as a utility for the future of Okotoks' growth.
Thorn says faster internet isn't just big for local businesses wanting to be better connected to the world.
"Access to high speed internet or fibre network has become a core service, it's no different than a phone ages ago," she says. "People can't function in today's day and life without reliable high speed internet."
Both Councillors believe when the annexation finally finishes its process, plans for fibre optic need to be at the forefront.
"Just going through that annexation process we've got a bunch of green filled land that currently is in our town boundaries to start moving some of that forward," Thorn says. "Because it's pennies on the dollar to fibre in at the beginning where as to try and retrofit already developed areas it becomes significantly more expensive."
Thorn says connection speeds available now just won't cut it in the future.
"Five megabytes per second is not high speed internet, 10 is not high speed internet. To me a minimum standard we should be seeing is 100 megabytes per second, I can see a value of one gigabyte depending on the business. So we need to start moving that forward that it becomes a general utility, it's installed no different when we install gas lines."
Thu, Apr 25, 4:30 PM
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