A press release from the City of Orillia earlier this week trumpeted a plan to bring Bell’s all-fibre broadband network to the 15,000 homes and businesses in Orillia.
It’s been dubbed a ‘next-generation’ communications infrastructure. But what does it really mean?
“For the average person, this is potentially taking us from walking to driving a Lamborghini down the streets in regards to the access we will have in the future and the infrastructure that’s in place,” said Coun. Mason Ainsworth, one of the champions of turning Orillia into a ‘smart city’. He helped start the Smart Cities Working Group.
“People talk about many jobs in the future that are not even created yet,” said Ainsworth. “This (deal) provides the infrastructure that puts us in the top 10% in Canada, so that we can compete across the country for those future jobs that aren’t even here yet. It’s massive.”
In fact, Bell selected Orillia, noted Coun. Ted Emond.
“Bell made that decision based on the growth they’ve seen happening here, the potential they see and they jumped over a number of communities to come here,” said Emond, who noted Orillia’s ranking as one of the top places to invest in Canada helped. “Those were the indicators that said to Bell, ‘OK, Orillia’s moving' and they want to be there with us.”
Orillia is among just 10% of communities in Canada who will be able to offer what Orillia Mayor Steve Clarke called “true high-speed internet.” He said Bell is investing “tens of millions of dollars into Orillia” to develop the infrastructure. There is no cost to Orillia.
But there is benefit to Orillians, said Dan Kehoe, the city’s IT manager. He put the ‘new’ high-speed Fibe into perspective.
“The Fibe they are talking about is 1000 megabits per second and right now you get about 40 to 50 megabits per second if you’re on high speed internet,” said Kehoe, noting the new service will be dramatically faster.
But it also has more capacity. “The Internet of Things, which is a buzzword these days, means that there are many more devices out there that need to be connected to the Internet – exponentially more. And that means we will require bigger bandwidth and that is what we’re getting with this.”
That will be a boon to those looking to come to Orillia – to set up business or to work from home, said Dan Landry, the city’s manager of business retention and expansion and industrial development.
“If you were a business and called Bell and said you wanted fibre directly connected to your business … the cost is tens of thousands of dollars to have it installed,” said Landry, noting there’s also a monthly cost of $1,000 or more. “Now, this will be available to every home and business in Orillia without” those high connection costs.
Landry, echoing Kehoe’s sentiment, said the increased capacity, allowing for the flow of more data through an exponentially larger band width, is vital.
“We have businesses that call us who are on what you and I might consider high speed, they are choked, waiting for hours” to send large files, Landry explained.
While Orillia is at the front of the line, Bell hopes, eventually, to offer the service everywhere, noted Landry.
“It’s going to take them decades to get that done. Our competitive advantage is we are in the top 10% of communities in Canada who will be offering this,” he said.
Fully funded by Bell, the network deployment will include more than 260 kilometres of new fibre installation and employ local workers in design and construction. Broad availability of the new network is expected by the first quarter of 2019.
“Bell is proud to partner with the City of Orillia to build the next generation communications infrastructure that will provide the best connectivity solutions today as well as the Internet of Things, smart city and 5G applications of tomorrow,” said Bruce Furlong, Bell’s Vice President, Network. “The ongoing support we have received from the City’s planning and permit departments will continue to play a key role in the quick and efficient rollout of the new network.”
Coun. Ralph Cipolla lauded the investment and said it was another step in Orillia’s bid to become a ‘smart city.’
“The Smart Cities Working Group has been working on this for a couple of years. The goal is to make Orillia into a smart city technologically,” said Cipolla, noting the city will start offering free WiFi in the downtown, Couchiching Beach Park and Rotary Place this summer. “People in Toronto want to move to a community like Orillia and work here, but they need that infrastructure. Now, we’ll have that.”