OLDS — The Town of Olds has announced a deal with two companies for "management and expansion” of O-NET.
O-NET is a municipally-owned company that provides high-speed internet, phone and TV services.
Last year, Olds Fibre Ltd. which operates it, became a municipally controlled corporation.
The Town of Olds' deal, announced in a news release this morning, is a partnership with FourNetworks Inc. and Nation Fiber Corp.
“The citizens of Olds will continue to own O-NET as a Municipally Controlled Corporation but will now utilize the experience and expertise of FourNetworks and Nation Fiber to grow its customer base and secure its long-term future,” the release said.
It described FourNetwork as “an end-to-end service and network operations provider with a deep understanding of telco-grade communications networks.”
It said the company “specializes in network infrastructure, telecom and professional services support and has successfully completed hundreds of multi-site, multi-service, and multi-tech deployments globally.
“They are recognized as a trusted partner to global organizations seeking to deploy high quality networks in a timely and cost-effective manner.”
The Town says FourNetworks is an operating partner and does the technical builds for Nation Fiber Corp. which is a majority-owned Indigenous infrastructure investment organization.
It specializes in bringing fibre optic networks to rural, remote, and Indigenous communities throughout Western Canada.
“As Canada’s first fibre-to-the-home community network, O-NET shares the value of ‘Home Grown’ telecommunications solutions aimed at bridging the rural-urban digital divide,” the Town of Olds news release said.
“The strategic partnership between the three corporations will accelerate the deployment of new fibre-to-the-home networks for rural communities in Prairie provinces, an endeavour that will carry the original vision and community values that were foundational to the inception of O-NET over 10 years ago.”
The release said FourNetworks is committed to improving O-NET service and infrastructure in Olds and beyond, including “engineering and implementation of a new next generation network core, major infrastructure repairs, and expanding into new service catalogue offerings for both residential and business customers.
“Moreover, Nation Fiber Corp. is committed to using O-NET as its exclusive internet service provider for its community networks deployment in the Northern Prairies,” it added.
The release also paid tribute to the “vision, dedication, and countless hours of those volunteers of the Olds Institute for Community and Regional Development who brought forward a vision of ‘more bandwidth’ into a groundbreaking telecom company.
“The town is proud to build upon the foundation they laid.”
The release also said “as per legislative requirements,” another announcement regarding O-NET's business plan, including expansion of O-NET’s geographical service area, will be made in the “very near future.”
The Aug. 16 release gave no financial information about the new deal.
During this year's annual general meeting, local accountant Krystal Stoutenberg of Stoutenberg & Company outlined financial statements for Olds Fibre Ltd. as of Dec. 31, 2021.
Cash at the end of the year amounted to $680,000.
Stoutenberg said Olds Fibre Ltd. had an opening deficit of $10,189,000. Net income for the year was $226,000, resulting in a closing deficit of $9.9 million.
She said total income for the year was just over $4 million, gross profit $2.75 million and expenses $2.8 million.
The overall loss from operations was $92,000 plus other income of $318,000, resulting in the above net income figure.
Stoutenberg said total financing at the end of the year was $15,060,017 $450,000 of that figure will be repaid before Dec. 31, 2022.
She said five private loans were on the books, with the last one to be repaid on Oct. 15.
