O-Net installed its main fibre optic line in Olds last week.
The company, which is a for-profit organization owned by the Olds Institute technology committee, will offer a fibre-to-the-premise broadband service to Olds residents starting in mid-2012.
“We are hoping for end of July, early August. That's all tentative at the moment as this equipment gets up and we go through our beta testing,” said Lance Douglas, O-Net president and CEO.
“There are always glitches that can happen.”
By having O-Net installed at their homes, Olds residents and businesses will have Internet, phone and television services delivered on the fast fibre network. Once in place, clients could be able to browse the Internet with a speed of up to one gigabyte (GB) per second.
“It's the download speed, but it's also the reliability. A lot of the time, when people are with other companies, their Internet connection will go down or Internet will work but the television won't,” said Nathan Kusiek, O-Net marketing and sales manager.
“We will try not to have down moments like that. The nice thing is we are local and if you do have a down moment, we are right here to fix it. It will be a lot more personalized service.”
Once customers sign up for O-Net, a crew will be sent to their residence to connect the property to the distribution network. The company has already determined that clients will be charged an installation cost.
“We have tried to either absorb it as much as possible or make it a really good incentive for picking it up,” said Douglas.
“It's the same as if you wanted a new cable line into your home or a new telephone line.”
The company has already finalized what its data plans and pricing will be.
“We haven't really set it yet, but we do know what that is and we are going out and doing some test marketing on that with certain individuals and groups,” said Douglas.
Both Douglas and Kusiek attended an Uptowne Olds meeting last month to get feedback from prospective commercial clients. They had asked the business-owning members to bring their phone and Internet bills to the meeting.
“We looked at a couple of bills and we had seen some prior to the meeting as well. Basically, what we are seeing is we were correct in the numbers we were looking to do,” said Douglas.
“The numbers that we are looking at are on par with what people are expecting to pay, and we are bringing a better value. That's what we are trying to do.”
Meanwhile, Kusiek says that ever since that meeting, people have been telling him how excited they are about O-Net.
“People kind of recognize me and whenever I go into their businesses, they talk to me (about O-Net),” he said.
“Both Stonewood Grill owners came up to me once and said they needed O-Net. Other members of other businesses are pretty excited I think.”
The company hopes to do some beta testing during June. O-Net prices should be released during the testing period.
