Tony Geheran, Telus broadband president, was in Osoyoos last week to meet with Telus employees and retirees at the Walnut Beach Resort. Telus has now completed its “Falcon” project to make Osoyoos one of the most wired communities in North America with high-speed fibre optics. Only a few multi-unit dwellings such as condominiums and apartments remain to be connected. (Richard McGuire photo)
One year after Telus announced it would develop a fibre optic network throughout Osoyoos, the company celebrated its near completion at the Walnut Beach Resort last Wednesday.
“Osoyoos is now one of the most connected communities in North America,” said Tony Geheran, broadband president with Telus.
Geheran boasts Telus has now achieved 43 per cent penetration in Osoyoos, which surpasses initial targets of 30 per cent.
“They are connected customers,” he said. “They’re not just hooked up with the fibre. They’re actually subscribing customers.”
The fibre optic network allows the transmission of internet and television at much faster speeds than the traditional copper wiring the company used. While the copper wiring will remain in place for now, the fibre optic lines are intended to replace it.
“It’s quite a big logistical exercise,” Geheran said.
Company contractors have extended fibre cables along the town’s streets, pole by pole, and then extending those to each home.
Geheran said all homes are now connected and all that remains to do is to finish connecting individual units in some multi-unit dwellings such as condominiums and apartments.
While the company could have simply connected to these buildings and converted the signal to traditional analogue, it chose to extend fibre to each suite.
“We wanted to have a consistent service availability, so that requires us running fibre to each suite in an apartment building,” said Geheran. “That means you have to negotiate with the strata or landlord … and then we have to send in a separate team. So that takes a little bit longer.”
Initially the highest speed of internet that Telus will provide is 100 megabits per second (Mbps), which is faster than the 80 Mbps Internet Eclipse service offered by Eastlink over cable.
The Telus fibre optic infrastructure, however, can easily be ramped up to much higher speeds should the demand be there, Geheran said.
“Google has been making a lot of noise about the plans they have to build in Kansas City (Missouri) and Austin (Texas),” said Geheran. “From our understanding, they’re still a work in progress on that. The community of Osoyoos has exactly the same technology.”
While the network in Osoyoos is capable of providing the one-gigabit-per-second service that Google is selling, it won’t initially be offered at that speed until demand is determined, Geheran said. The 100 Mbps service Telus is offering is a tenth of the speed that Google is making available in Kansas City and Austin.
Telus will be offering gigabit service on a trial basis in another community, which Geheran said he is unable to name at this time.
There is a digital divide in the U.S. that is no longer between people who are connected and those who are not, but is now between more affluent communities that can afford gigabit service and poorer communities that can only afford slower speeds, he said.
“We don’t think that sits well in Canada and we don’t think that’s the way we’d like to offer services, but our infrastructure is capable of supporting a gigabit,” he said.
Telus has found there is not a lot of demand even for the 100 Mbps service and the average customer only takes 25 Mbps, Geheran added.
“So we’re looking to see what the market behaviour and demand needs right now,” he said. “When we think that the Canadian market is ready for a gigabit, our network will be unconstrained and available to support that.”
While fibre optic offers speed and other advantages to home internet and television users, Geheran said there would be immediate benefits to small business as well.
One major advantage is the reliability of the infrastructure, he said.
By replacing and overbuilding existing copper lines, Telus has ensured there are multiple routes that data can follow from the central office and distribution to the customer.
“Any customer connected to this new network has a redundancy factor which is much higher than we’ve had previously,” he said. “If your point-of-sale terminal is key to revenue coming into your business and you lose your high-speed internet service because the cable has been cut by a tree falling on a line, that can be catastrophic for that day’s takings or beyond. With the fibre build, that network is much more robust to physical interruption.”
Secondly, the service offers faster speeds and is much more configurable.
Working with Walnut Beach Resort, for example, Telus has provided a package that will provide high-speed internet to every room as well as an Optik TV package. Guests will be able to purchase add-on services, such as movies, from a large catalogue on a pay-as-you-use basis.
“What the hotel is saying is that their guests come armed with multiple laptops and smartphone devices and their children have to be connected all the time,” said Geheran. “That becomes very bandwidth consumptive and in the past their network could not support bandwidth demands.”
Now high-speed Internet and high-definition television is available throughout the resort, he said.
Last Wednesday many Telus employees and retirees descended on Walnut Beach for a wrap-up of the past year.
“What we’ve done today is really come full circle,” said Geheran. “We finished the build and we wanted to let them know how things went, what we learned from the process, because this was one of the first communities that we’ve chosen to come to. The reason we came here was the municipality was very progressive and saw the value of having a digitally connected community.”
People come to Osoyoos for the weather and natural beauty, but often they also want to be able to get some work done during their stay.
“The bandwidth is available, so now you can do that,” he said.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
