OI unconcerned about Axia pitch to Bowden

The executive director of Olds Institute, the parent of O-NET, a locally-owned fibre optic communcations service, says they're not concerned about the fact that Axia, a rival company, is looking at installing fibre in Bowden.

"We're not overly concerned. I mean, Axia is bringing Internet to communities and that is a for-profit business. Our model's a little bit different in that it creates community ownership," Mitch Thomson says.

"Absolutely, we'd love to serve in many communities. But we're committed to growing the O-NET business in a strong, sustainable way for the community.

"So communities that are interested in our service that want to partner; if Bowden was that community, we'd be more than happy to discuss that. And we are discussing with many communities," he adds.

"But you know, if Telus wants to make an investment somewhere or Axia wants to make an investment somewhere, it's a different model and those communities will have some different considerations," he says.

Thomson says the O-NET model is community ownership "which gives you the ability to do what's right for your community, to have some say and some control on development."

By contrast, he says, Axia does things differently. Reports say it's privately owned.

"In an instance in where an organization comes in and foots the bill and puts in their equipment and the community is not involved - in the infrastructure build or in the service delivery, they'll get what they get, right?"

"We're always willing to chat with Bowden and any of the other communities in the province that are interested in a partnership type of a project," Thomson adds.

"But if there is somebody willing to foot the bill and that's the option they want to go (with) that's definitely something that they can do. But we're more than happy to chat with them about some of the differences in model and help them make some decisions that are best for them."