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Alberta paid for fibre. It stopped short of homes.

Alberta has spent about $1 billion of public money building and running SuperNet: fibre to public buildings in 429 communities, never to homes (Auditor General of Alberta).

Outside Alberta's population centres, only about one household in five can get gigabit service (18.7%, our calculation from CRTC data, 2025). Why SuperNet didn't bring fibre home.

AB AB USA to VANIX to Regina to the USA Fort Macleod Brooks Medicine Hat Taber Lethbridge Calgary YYCIX exchange

A dark map of southern Alberta. Calgary, Brooks, Medicine Hat, Taber and Lethbridge are drawn at their real positions. Glowing lines run from Calgary through Brooks to Medicine Hat, from Medicine Hat through Taber to Lethbridge, and from Lethbridge through Fort Macleod back to Calgary. One line leaves Calgary to the west, toward Vancouver and its VANIX exchange; another leaves Medicine Hat to the east, across the Saskatchewan border toward Regina; a third runs south from Lethbridge to Coutts and across the US border. A pulsing marker at Calgary shows the YYCIX internet exchange. Lines are drawn straight between towns, not along the real fibre paths.

Southern Alberta's main fibre paths, simplified: Calgary to Brooks to Medicine Hat, Medicine Hat to Taber to Lethbridge, and Lethbridge back to Calgary through Fort Macleod, with Bell's routes running on west toward Vancouver and its exchange, VANIX, and east to Regina, and fibre running south from Lethbridge to Coutts, at the Montana border. Illustration Sources: Bell Wholesale, network map (2026); Alberta SuperNet map (Service Alberta), in Cybera's 2021 report; YYCIX

Other places didn't wait

Fibre to the home is already common in Canada's big cities. TELUS says more than 1.2 million homes and businesses in Alberta can get its fibre, only about 120,000 of them rural (TELUS, 2026), and 1.9 million in British Columbia (TELUS, 2024). In 2021 it set out to connect more than 90% of Calgary homes and businesses (TELUS).

Smaller Alberta cities are catching up. Red Deer is getting fibre to 90% of its homes, a $168 million build by F3 Networks for TELUS (TELUS, 2025). Brooks didn't wait for anyone: the City owns the fibre backbone of BrooksNET, an open-access network any provider can sell over (Alberta Broadband Toolkit). Clearwater County is building a county-owned open-access network (Clearwater County), and fibre to the premises is being built in Beaumont, Sherwood Park, Vermilion and Nisku (Meridiam). Coquitlam, BC, has leased city-owned fibre to any provider since 2008 (City of Coquitlam).

In the US, Chattanooga's city-owned electric utility, EPB, launched its fibre network in 2010; a University of Tennessee study puts the community benefit at $5.3 billion (EPB).

Medicine Hat is still waiting

Medicine Hat owns its own electric utility (City of Medicine Hat), like Chattanooga. Its planned fibre build, by the same F3 Networks and TELUS partnership as Red Deer's, was deferred in August 2026; the City says it was not a City-led project (City of Medicine Hat).

Canadians pay more, too. In the federal government's 2025 price study, Canada's average home internet prices were the highest of eight countries at every speed from 50 Mbps up, though its cheapest plans sit mid-range (ISED).

In our view, Medicine Hat and other Alberta cities risk falling further behind, and missing the chance to make sure everyone can get fast internet at a fair price. A city that owns fibre to the premises (FTTP) can help ensure robust and affordable internet services are available for everyone, which can help attract businesses and retain the interest of its youth. What Medicine Hat already has.

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