Alberta municipalities see fibre broadband future in public-private partnerships

By Ahmad Hathout BROOKS, Alta. - Proponents of a new partly city-owned fibre network currently in development in the town of Brooks, Alberta are viewing the partnership with the town as a future path forward for other Canadian towns they say are neglected by larger providers. Michael Weening, president and chief operating officer of U.S.-based cloud and software company Calix, which is providing systems for the build, visited his hometown and met with Brooks mayor John Petrie last week to talk about the $21-million BrooksNet project, which will utilize buried fibre cable and provide gigabit-speed internet to at least 15,000...