Solved: Calgary Pure Fiber Nonresistant

Big-Al

I switched from Shaw internet in 2016 , and was of the belief that we would eventually get pure fiber to my house. But after trying to get upgrade from 50 mbps to 100 mbps I was told that they would have to double up the copper wire and we might not be able to have a land line telephone. When I inquired why we could not get pure fiber to our house I was told that it was a City of Calgary counsel restriction.

I was in Kelowna and talus was directional boring right up to the garages and fiber optics box inside of the garages.

The tech told me that almost all of Alberta and BC had pure fiber, but that there is a dispute with Calgary's City Counsel. Is this true and what can be done about it.

I find it hard to believe that we have a first class city with antiquated internet service.

Shaw is offering to double speeds of 300 and 600 , and most of Residential Calgary is still on Copper wire with max 75.

Chicnstu

Every city and municipality that gets the Fibre expansion has to sign contracts and agreements with Telus that covers things like utility right-of-way, easement approach, city bylaw enforcement, potential road construction and various other things like 5G micro cell sites. Some councils and municipalities have been super accommodating and others have been very hesitant for one reason or the other. Calgary is unfortunately the latter. In my personal opinion I feel like Calgary has always leaned more towards Shaw since they have a large corporate presence there. Anyone in Calgary who wants to see the Fibre build fast tracked should talk to their local representative.

Big-Al

Thank you for your reply, but with Shaw offering doubling speeds from 150to 300 and 300 and 600 you would think that Telus would get more aggressive with the City and get it done.

Maybe an email petition campaign directed at City hall. I am sure that Telus have enough users that could defiantly catch there attention.

As mentioned before we are supposed to be a world class city and should be embracing new technology like pure fiber, but what do you expect from city council and bureaucrats that can't figure out how to be able to use a transit smart cards.

SquattingBear

I am currently in process of moving to Shawnessy in Calgary and Telus isnt even worth considering. Its a real shame because I loved my pure-fiber in the Beltline and would have loved to stay a Telus customer, but the max service Telus provides for the house I am moving to (which fronts practically directly onto 162nd Ave is 6MbpsDown/1MbpsUp for $60 which is frankly embarrasing.

Chicnstu

@SquattingBear wrote:
I am currently in process of moving to Shawnessy in Calgary and Telus isnt even worth considering. Its a real shame because I loved my pure-fiber in the Beltline and would have loved to stay a Telus customer, but the max service Telus provides for the house I am moving to (which fronts practically directly onto 162nd Ave is 6MbpsDown/1MbpsUp for $60 which is frankly embarrasing.

Are you sure the max is 6? That entire subdivision should be capable of 50 or more on copper. Did a rep on the phone tell you that or some other source? They might have been looking at super outdated records for line qualifications on old ADSL but not VDSL2+. They need to send that off to get confirmed because that definitely doesn't sound right.

Big-Al

My son just changed from Shaw to Telus in Douglas Dale, and internet speeds are less than 40mbps. With some one streaming in the house, speeds go down drastically for every one else. With the government saying that every one in Canada should have access to high speed internet, how about starting in Canadas 5 largest City.

No high tech company is going to open shop here if we can't supply higher internet speeds to the homes of the workers. Some people work from home, and if they can only work in certain physical areas of the city then this limits the type of high tech companies setting up shop here.

With phones going to 5 g in the future how about having a petition regarding Pure fiber and start to compete wish the rest of the world.

Chicnstu

Telus would love to have Fibre everywhere and their $10+ billion in Fibre investment shows that. Unfortunately it's not up to them entirely and Calgary is causing a huge roadblock for Fibre expansion. The mayor is blatantly pro-Shaw in my opinion. Edmonton's Fibre conversion is around 75% complete now. Calgary's council needs to wake up or they will get left behind.

Big-Al

Is there any thing that we can do to get this moving. maybe a petition or an email blitz?

Chicnstu

I would think anything that gets the attention of the city council. If a ton of people call their local representative and raise a stink it couldn't hurt.

Big-Al

I just sent a letter to the Calgary Herald lets see if they will publish it.

Nighthawk

@Big-Al wrote:
I just sent a letter to the Calgary Herald lets see if they will publish it.

Even if they do publish it (which isn't likely), it won't have any impact. You'll need a LOT of people to contact the city of Calgary to complain about them making it difficult to get fibre out to more people and to allow more competition within the city.

Next, get everyone to fill out the I want fibre form to show where the demand is. I imagine if the demand is high enough Telus can use that information to try push the City to allow fewer restrictions and roadblocks to getting it to people.

Big-Al

Sent to Rob Breakenridge Calgary Herold

This topic might make an interesting article.

I have been trying to find out why Telus has been unable to install Fiber optic to my home. I keep getting the answer that it is City of Calgary problem.

I don’t understand why with Calgary trying to attract high Tech firms to fill the office space that they would be dragging their feet on this. Most business now require people working from home, and if they can’t get high speed internet it leaves a lot of businesses to locate somewhere else like Edmonton, where Telus has installed more then 70% of the residential with fiber. I can now understand why the new Amazon facility are building in Rocky View because they have access to Super High-speed Internet. If we wat to attract the new High Tech we need to have a world class city with world class facilities. I understand that the reason is Calgary is too expensive and the bureaucracy and red tape.

This is small town thinking.

Why not fid out how Edmonton and Red Deer work with some one like Telus and what they charge per hook up. This is Private money building the infrastructure, and what ever Calgary makes from permits and right of ways is more revenue for our city. This is a win, win, win for Tax payers, and gives Calgary more tools to attract business.

Al

Calgary AB.

Nighthawk

There are a number of reasons that can delay fibre installs and the City of Calgary is only one of them. Telus needs City approved permits to install fibre across / under the utility rights of way. If the excessive red tape and bureaucracy you acknowledge in your letter is really that bad, you should be asking City Hall and your local representative about what they can do to allow faster approval for permits for ALL utilities. A single letter to the paper isn't going to do much. As I mentioned before, you'll need a ton more people to inquire before anything happens. Small towns have actually banded together (town councils, chamber of commerce, and regular citizens) and have had good results when they worked together. If only that was possible in large cities...

A few obvious reasons for delays:

Access to utility right of way (City permits)
Availability of installation crews and equipment.
Access to any other land that the City needs to approve / permit
Access to private property, easements, rights of way
Weather, specifically winter.
Aerial vs buried lines. Buried takes far longer to install.
and availability of installation crews and equipment.

A few other points:

New Amazon fulfillment centre in Rockyview? That opened last year and is right north of the airport. See here. The current months old news is the Amazon Fulfillment Centre announced to Leduc, near the Edmonton International Airport.
Small town thinking? More small towns have fibre and often have fewer barriers / red tape to getting it installed.
I'm also curious about these "tech firms" that you claim are allowing people to work from home. I've found very few employers in most industries, IT or not, that actually allow employees to work from home.
Having more residential fibre is going to be low on the list of things new business is going to be looking for. The City needs to fix it's own problems that are deterring businesses from setting up shop there first.

And some light reading: http://www.calgary.ca/CS/IIS/Pages/Utility-Alignment-Permits/permits.aspx

The City's bylaw guidelines alone are 120 pages.