The Town of High River is investing in high speed Internet for the business area in the downtown and on 12th ave.

Council Budgeted $685,720 for the project. It will be run as a utility and the Town will collect revenue back when the service is up and running.

Jodi Dawson, manager of economic development, says the project can start to move ahead after council approved the five year capital plan in the budget last Monday.

Dawson tried to get a company to come to town and install fibre optics.

"After we learned that there wasn't a lot of interest in making the investment we wanted to go down the road and see what it would take for us to do it," said Dawson.

For now the service will only be for businesses.

"What we know is that technology is changing every industry at a rapid pace. From an economic development and ongoing momentum builder this is a need. We need it."

Olds built a network like this but it became very expensive to build when they included the residential areas.

"Where we are different is we are only looking at only our business community. It is a far lower investment to service that need then if we were talking about the town in its entirety."

Dawson says the purpose of this project is to bring competition and choice to High River.

“Companies in the health, creative, professional, agriculture and technical fields say high-speed Internet, combined with the Town’s other unique assets and entrepreneurial spirit, makes this community very attractive for their businesses.”

 

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