Bow Island
Population 2,036 (2021 Census)
This browser can't draw the interactive map (it needs WebGL). Everything on it is in the list below.
Speeds by provider
M-Lab speed tests from Bow Island in 2025, by the network they ran on (Mbps). The fastest tenth shows what a network can deliver.
| Provider | Tests | Download | Upload | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical | Fastest 10% | Typical | Fastest 10% | ||
| TELUS (incl. NETAGO) | 78 | 9 | 170 | 3.2 | 43 |
The fastest tenth by year, download / upload:
| Provider | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (Jan–Sep) |
|---|---|---|---|
| TELUS (incl. NETAGO) | – | 170 / 43 | – |
Satellite, across Alberta in 2025: Starlink typically 75 down and 7.1 up, fastest tenth 200 / 14; Xplore typically 30 down and 2.8 up, fastest tenth 72 / 12.
What the government map says
The 210 km of road in and around Bow Island, by the best wired speed providers report along it (download/upload, Mbps).
| Best wired speed reported | Share of roads |
|---|---|
| 50/10 Mbps | 14% |
| 25/5 Mbps | 0% |
| 10/2 Mbps | 0% |
| 5/1 Mbps | 2% |
| No wired service reported | 85% |
Who can get gigabit
Fibre and cable can deliver 1 Gbps. Of the 12 government-data hexagons with 5 or more households in and around Bow Island, by what providers report in them:
| Reported in the hexagon | Hexagons |
|---|---|
| Fibre to the home reported | 0 |
| Cable reported, no fibre | 2 |
| No fibre or cable reported | 10 |
Cable reported by Rogers and Shaw. (Names as ISED lists them; Rogers bought Shaw in 2023.)
Across southern Alberta, 911 of the 1,102 populated hexagons the government map counts at 50/10 have no fibre or cable reported at all (83%).
Measured speeds
The best wired-like Speedtest result each ~390 m square in and around Bow Island has reached, up to 2026 (Jan–Sep) (127 squares tested). Share of squares by best download:
| Best download | Share of squares |
|---|---|
| 500 Mbps or more | 12% |
| 100–500 Mbps | 22% |
| 50–100 Mbps | 6% |
| Under 50 Mbps | 13% |
| Only wireless-like results | 48% |
Share of squares tested so far whose best reached 100 Mbps; fast upload is a good sign of fibre. The slider under the map shows the same years.
| Year | Squares | 100+ down | 100+ up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 59 | 20% | 0% |
| 2020 | 69 | 20% | 0% |
| 2021 | 89 | 20% | 0% |
| 2022 | 96 | 21% | 3% |
| 2023 | 106 | 27% | 13% |
| 2024 | 109 | 31% | 20% |
| 2025 | 118 | 31% | 24% |
| 2026 (Jan–Sep) | 127 | 34% | 24% |
What's actually in the ground
This section uses public and provider-reported data and hasn't been independently verified yet.
Bow Island is where the official map gets thin. The government figures above report 50/10 or better on only a small share of the roads in our box, and no wired service on most of them. Some of that is the box, which is mostly farmland. In our view some of it is a small town still served mostly by copper and coax.
Topicks, working from CRTC network-owner filings, lists no fibre to the home from TELUS or Rogers here (Topicks). Fixed wireless does the heavy lifting (see Providers below).
In May 2023 the town council voted to back a County of Forty Mile application to the Universal Broadband Fund and the Alberta Broadband Fund to bring fibre to communities, starting at Bow Island and running to Foremost and along Highway 61 (Bow Island Commentator). The same report says a fibre line already runs through the town, that the county’s first phase had been built the year before, west of town, and that the town wants better service for its airport industrial park.
We haven’t found a public record of whether the 2023 application was funded, or who operates the county’s fibre. In our view those questions decide whether Bow Island gets fibre to its homes, and a county already building its own fibre is the obvious partner.
Providers
The providers listed for Bow Island that we profile, Rogers, TELUS and Xplore, each run their own network. None rides on another's lines, so there are no rides-on lines to draw.
Incumbent telephone company
- TELUS The incumbent phone company. Topicks, working from CRTC network-owner filings, lists TELUS DSL in part of the town and no TELUS fibre. Source: topicks.ca
Cable company
- Rogers (formerly Shaw) Shaw's network, owned by Rogers since 2023. Topicks lists coaxial cable in part of the town. Source: topicks.ca
Fixed wireless
- Xplore, Mascon and Live Wireless Topicks lists these as fixed-wireless network owners across all of its Bow Island zones. Source: topicks.ca
Infrastructure and exchanges
Alberta SuperNet fibre, built with public money for public buildings, reaches Bow Island. It was never built to reach homes (what SuperNet is).
-
Alberta SuperNet extended area fibreSuperNet fibrereportedapproximate path
The SuperNet's extended area network, fibre to about 400 smaller communities, which the province paid $193 million to build. Bell has run all of SuperNet since 2018. It reaches the Montana border at Coutts. Traced from Service Alberta's SuperNet map (2005/06, in Cybera's 2021 report); wireless links are left out, and some paths have changed since.
Want fibre in your community? Register your interest.
Related explainers
Sources
- Bow Island Commentator, rural broadband project and council (2023)
- Topicks, internet coverage in Bow Island (aggregator, from CRTC filings)
- Rogers, acquisition of Shaw
- Alberta SuperNet extended area fibre (wiki.cybera.ca)
- National Broadband Data, ISED (retrieved 2026-10-17)
- The M-Lab NDT Data Set, 2024-01-01 to 2026-09-30, queried 2026-10-22 in BigQuery (CC0)
- Speedtest® by Ookla® Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps, accessed 2026-10-22. Based on iana.ca's analysis of Speedtest® by Ookla® data for 2019 to 2026 (Jan–Sep). Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- Basemap: © OpenStreetMap contributors, via Protomaps