TELUS has committed to bringing fibre optic connections to the valley and they are posed to begin this spring.
Senior Vice President of Broadband Networks for TELUS Tony Geheran and representatives of the company were at Drumheller Town Hall Thursday afternoon to make the announcement. The project, worth $7.5 million will bring fibre optic connections to 3,600 residences and businesses. This will allow for the most modern and reliable telephone, Internet and Optik television connections.
“With the support of the Town, which has been very progressive in making the investment work for us, we are launching our new fibre network in Drumheller,” said Geheran. “We aim to start the build in April and conclude in October.”
He said TELUS has been working with the municipality for about a year to bring this investment to town.
“Basically we are overlaying and upgrading all the facilities in the town. The optical equipment is being installed in the central office and from there, the optic fiber will feed out and is accessed by 10 distribution hubs into each neighbourhood.”
The network will cover a defined boundary which includes Nacmine and stretches east to the Willow Estates. The initial build does not include Rosedale and communities east.
Geheran explains the initial connections will have speeds of 100 Mbps, and as each build area is complete, they will go live.
To complete the build he anticipates 60-70 workers on the ground through the peak. These will be TELUS teams as well as partner crews. When the build is complete, there will be an expansion of its workforce in the local office.
“We will be increasing local team size. What we have found where we have done this already, we have a very satisfactory outcome in terms of new customers and it tends to be more work for the local team, which means more people,” he said.
“With the physical build itself, and the crews we bring in, it drives a small economic boom for a period.”
He adds there are other benefits including TELUS Health Solutions which could allow residents to remain in their home longer.
There are also lasting economic benefits.
“What we have found as we’ve been looking at the smaller communities is there are some beautiful places you could live, and would want to live, but you can’t because you can’t work the way you like, this removes one of those barriers. When you are looking to attract inward population growth, the network is a key factor as to where people want to live,” said Geheran.
Mayor Terry Yemen is very excited to have the service come.
“We have identified connectivity as one of our priorities, but as a council we have struggled with how we could do it with that type of investment of over $7 million. This has taken care of that for us… It’s a real win for the Town of Drumheller,” he said.
