Lacombe County plans to apply for provincial funding help to improve Internet service in areas where connections are slow or non-existent.
In January, the provincial government rolled out the Final Mile Rural Connectivity Initiative, a $5-million program to improve broadband service in rural areas of Alberta. The cash is aimed at delivering high-speed connectivity to unserviced locations, which are areas where households don’t have access to Internet with a minimum download speed of 1.5 Mbps.
Up to 75 per cent of a municipality’s project costs could be covered.
County commissioner Terry Hager said some areas of the county have no Internet coverage or have coverage but with poor download speeds.
One option is for the county to apply for funding to build its own rural communications towers and then lease space on them to Internet providers.
The cost of improving Internet coverage in four areas of the county already identified as lacking good service would be about $1.2 million. If the province funded 75 per cent of that, the county’s share would be just over $300,000.
Coun. Dana Kreil asked whether the county would be stepping into an area that could be handled by private business.
Hager said the county would welcome private proposals if they came forward.
“What our objective is is to provide broadband to every resident at a reasonable cost. How we get there, we don’t care,” he said.
The Connectivity Initiative aims to provide high-speed Internet to at least 98 per cent of Albertans. About 43,600 rural Alberta households are without access to high-speed Internet service.
Earlier this week, the province announced it is committing $9.5 million to support work with Internet service providers to add infrastructure to the remainder of unserviced areas in rural Alberta. Tenders for service in these areas will be released later this year.
The technology to reach unserviced parts of the province will be determined based on what works best for a specific area and on what infrastructure is already available in the region.
Up to $900,000 available will also be made available for a satellite solution that will reduce the distance costs of accessing high-speed Internet for Albertans living in low-density, remote areas of the province.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com