As the world’s primary means of enabling learning, delivering knowledge, providing health care, enhancing agriculture, saving the environment, creating jobs, and understanding each other, the Internet is moving from commercial service to public utility. Red Deer County views fiber optic infrastructure as being no different from road, power, water and waste treatment infrastructure that is so critical to the sustainability and future of rural Alberta. Therefore, over the next four years, the County plans to construct an end to end fiber optic network by investing in infrastructure while contracting out all other operational services (including wholesale and retail operations).
In an effort to align with the County’s objective to connect as many properties within the County as possible, we have gathered business intelligence that allows for us to put forward a comprehensive coverage strategy by using the following guiding principles:
Build to cover the most population the fastest way possible
Fiber first mentality
Eye on the overall strategy – “Red Deer County will be the most connected County in North America”
Minimum of 200Mbps (Symmetrical) of internet service bandwidth
Technology agnostic – fiber as future service points
Future proofing the network – backhaul assurance to the gateway
Build to or past all to incorporated towns i.e. Sylvan Lake, Bowden, Innisfail and Penhold
Propagate highspeed internet through Red Deer County and utilizing best technologies to fill in space
This network is intended to bring the best of market services at the best of market prices to all constituents. The network will be independent and will support all future information and telecommunication applications such as fiber-to-the premise, Smart City, Agritech, and 5G mobility. The network creates critical fiber infrastructure that will be leveraged to connect residents, farms and businesses throughout Red Deer County as well as provide connectivity to incorporated towns and villages inside the County boundaries.
Red Deer County is partnering with Valo Networks by investing in digital infrastructure so that everyone in Red Deer County can enjoy a country lifestyle and be able to thrive in a modern economy.