O-Net officials held an official "Fibre Light-Upî Jan. 29 for what they're billing as the highest capacity community owned network in Canada.
Olds Institute for Community and Regional Development (OICRD) and its partner Olds Fibre Ltd., operating as O-Net, are bringing to Olds, telephone, TV and internet through a fibre optic network (minimum connections at 100Mbps) and a central operations centre to manage it all.
O-Net is currently deploying fibre optic broadband to every property in the community and connecting customers.
In 2004, community members came together and determined that a barrier to sustainability was the lack of broadband services, according to O-Net officials.
This community engagement resulted in an eight-year journey and thousands of hours of volunteer commitment culminating in the creation of O-Net.
Officials touted the benefits of the network to the hundreds of people gathered for the event at the TransCanada Theatre.
During the light up event O-Net officials announced their supportive role in Olds College's mobile learning initiative, set to launch this fall. The initiative involving Apple Inc.'s ipads is being made possible through O-Net's fibre optic network.
