High Speed Fibre future proofs Vermilion!

The Town of Vermilion set out to provide their community with broadband speeds equivalent or higher than larger municipalities.  Strategic Priority #1, Broadband – high speed fibre to every town premise was the goal! Installed in under 8 months in 2022 that goal was achieved through an international partnership between Alberta Broadband Networks it’s partners and the Town of Vermilion.  The inaugural community for Alberta Broadband Networks, businesses and residents can sign up with Primus. With speeds from 1GIG scalable to 10GIG symmetrical Vermilion is one of the first communities in rural Alberta to provide this type of fibre infrastructure making Vermilion a very attractive community for investment, business, and visitors.

Council’s Strategic Priority #1 over the last 4 years – Broadband.  To provide high speed fibre to every premise in Vermilion.

To compete in today’s world with larger municipalities – rural municipalities must provide high-speed broadband. Community Broadband is a municipal responsibility – the key to vibrant sustainable communities like roads and clean drinking water.

• When we started our journey there was no provincial strategy or federal strategy and we applied and lobbied to:
  • SMART Cities Application
  • Grant Funding.
  • Universal Broadband Fund
  • CRTC Requirements –we met their minimum requirements.
  • Service Alberta – Several meetings with Mayor/Economic Development.
  • Our local MLA spoke in legislature twice.
  • Federal Ministry – Met with Minister and two Senators.
• Edmonton Global News – we had to justify why this was a story – they did not understand the differences in broadband from rural to urban. This is a huge roadblock for rural Alberta going forward.
• We also chatted with the CAO of Telus. We were not on their 5-year plan and if we wanted to be looked at in their 5-10 year plan and upfront 11 million dollars would be required.  Small municipalities do not have that type of money sitting around to move on a project with no guarantees.

Broadband is connectivity – and not just internet. How do you grow your community, attract visitors and people to town without broadband. It is the future!

• It affects our: businesses/residents, BREI, business investment – in all sectors particularly agriculture – autonomous tractors, health care – including attracting doctors, emergency services, education (Lakeland College, schools, training within our industry sectors) and tourism.
• Where are we at today?
  • The Town of Vermilion is getting noticed for high-speed fibre and is getting up take on their industrial and commercial real estate.
  • Primus and Alberta Broadband Networks have hit the ground signing up a large percentage of our industrial and retail sector to the service. They have secured a small corner of the residential contracts and are currently working on increased residential uptake.
  • An investment in the service is and investment in our community.
  • Alberta Broadband Networks and Primus have learned so much from our small municipality. We are not a Toronto.  We want to see real down to earth people knocking on our door and talking to us face-to-face to explain the fibre internet for our residents to understand.
  • Alberta Broadband Networks has expanded from Vermilion and is working with several other rural communities to bring them into the twenty-first century as well.
  • The Town of Vermilion was awarded an Economic Development Award for their innovation in putting in a high-speed fibre connectivity for their community in 8 months by partnering internationally. Thinking outside the box and not giving up.

On our website go to – Vermilion’s Broadband Project – Town of Vermilion