The Medicine Hat opportunity
Medicine Hat has public fibre and a City-owned power plant. Fibre to the home reaches part of the city, and the planned build was deferred.
This browser can't draw the interactive map (it needs WebGL). Everything on it is in the list below.
What's already in place
Alberta has already paid for fibre to Medicine Hat. SuperNet, which the province estimates cost about $1 billion to build and run (Auditor General of Alberta), reaches the city alongside Bell's own routes. It was built for public buildings, not homes, and a planned fibre-to-the-home build in the city was deferred in August 2026. In our view, the question isn't whether there's fibre here; it's whether local networks can use it. What SuperNet is.
The entries on our map that bear on Medicine Hat: infrastructure we know of in southern Alberta, and the exchange idea. Each says how sure we are and where it comes from.
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Calgary to Brooks to Medicine Hat fibre route documented approximate path
Bell's network map shows a major Bell fibre route between Calgary and Medicine Hat. The Alberta SuperNet map (Service Alberta, 2005/06, in Cybera's 2021 report) shows fibre on the same corridor through Brooks, along the Trans-Canada (Highway 1). In our view TELUS and Rogers (formerly Shaw) may have their own fibre here too. Drawn along the highway; the real path is not known.
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Calgary to Fort Macleod to Lethbridge fibre (Bell) route documented approximate path
Bell's network map shows a major Bell fibre route between Calgary and Lethbridge. The Alberta SuperNet map (Service Alberta, 2005/06, in Cybera's 2021 report) shows fibre from Calgary down Highway 2 to Fort Macleod, then east to Lethbridge. Drawn along the highway; the real path is not known.
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Calgary to Kamloops fibre (Bell) route documented approximate path
Bell's network map shows a major Bell fibre route west from Calgary to Kamloops, and on to Vancouver. Bell's map is a schematic, so we draw the line along the Trans-Canada Highway; the real path is not shown.
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Medicine Hat to Swift Current to Regina fibre route documented approximate path
Bell's network map shows a major Bell fibre route east from Medicine Hat to Regina, and on to Winnipeg. In our view it runs through Swift Current along the Trans-Canada (Highway 1). Drawn along the highway; the real path is not known.
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Alberta SuperNet base network fibre SuperNet fibre reported approximate path
The SuperNet's base network, fibre linking 27 larger centres, including Calgary, Brooks, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. Bell built and owns it. SuperNet carries traffic for public buildings; it was never fibre to homes. Traced from Service Alberta's SuperNet map (2005/06, in Cybera's 2021 report); some paths have changed since.
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Alberta SuperNet extended area fibre SuperNet fibre reported approximate 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.
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Medicine Hat municipal fibre fibre network inferred
The City of Medicine Hat owns an extensive fibre optic network that supports its city-wide utility infrastructure and extensive municipal property locations.
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Taber municipal fibre fibre network inferred
The Town of Taber owns its own fibre network, connecting nearly all of its major town-owned facilities. For homes and businesses, the town partnered with TELUS for fibre (Alberta Broadband Toolkit, 2023).
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Brooks municipal fibre backbone asset reported
The City of Brooks put about $5.4 million into the fibre backbone (the feeder network), which it owns. Crown Capital funded and owns the $15 million distribution network to homes and businesses, Community Network Partners operates it, and O-Net was to be the first internet provider before the network opens to other providers (Alberta Broadband Toolkit, 2023). 2022 news reports say the city's share came from a Canada Community Building Fund grant.
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Hut 8 Medicine Hat site asset documented
Hut 8 lists a site in Medicine Hat on its own website. It is a private data centre, not network infrastructure.
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Lethbridge city fibre in industrial parks asset reported
Lethbridge used a grant to fund a high-speed fibre network through the Sherring and Churchill industrial parks. Construction was scheduled for 2021; completion has not yet been confirmed.
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Medicine Hat municipal electric and gas utilities asset documented
The City of Medicine Hat owns and operates its own gas and electric utilities.
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Idea under research: a Medicine Hat internet exchange idea under research inferred
An idea under research, not a plan: a Medicine Hat internet exchange. It needs viability research. The Internet Society's IXP tracker lists no exchange in southern Alberta outside Calgary, and none along the Trans-Canada corridor between Calgary and Regina; the nearest listed exchange to the east is in Saskatoon.
A datacentre in Medicine Hat
The City generates, distributes and sells its own electricity (City of Medicine Hat). Its plant reached nearly 300 MW in 2022 (our sum: 246 MW plus Unit 17's 43 MW). Hut 8, a Bitcoin miner, signed a 42 MW supply agreement with the City in 2018 (Lexpert). Hut 8 is a private data centre, not network infrastructure.
In our view, that suits a small to mid-size datacentre. Hyperscale is limited by provincial rules today: the grid operator capped new large loads at 1,200 MW to 2028 (AESO), all allocated (BLG). In our view, because Medicine Hat's electric utility is a profit centre for the City, a big new load could add to the City of Medicine Hat's electric utility revenue.
An internet exchange: one idea under research
A map of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, cities at their real positions. Listed internet exchanges are marked in Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon. Medicine Hat sits on the Trans-Canada Highway between Calgary and Regina, with no exchange listed in the city or along the highway.
The nearest active exchange south is SpokaneIX, about 560 km away (straight line, our measure). Montana's only listed exchange, YRIX in Billings, lists a single network; Montana Internet and Montana Opticom peer in Seattle.
Two bars. TELUS DSL, via the YYCIX exchange in Calgary: last reply about 9 milliseconds. Rogers (Shaw) cable, via Vancouver and back to Calgary: last reply about 45 milliseconds. Times are round trips to the last router that answered.
A local exchange (what it is) could shorten paths that now detour (why), but it needs viability research first.
Why I care about this
I've worked with the incumbent providers in southern Alberta since 1997, and they have always been hard to work with. I've also worked with many public institutions in the region, and I've seen what this means on the ground for local businesses.
Very few businesses in Medicine Hat can get fibre to the premises at all. In my experience the incumbents have little interest in helping competitors succeed. Medicine Hat is a mid-sized market they already dominate, and the investment doesn't come here the way it does in Calgary. It doesn't even come here the way it goes to smaller places like Taber, or Seven Persons, which has SuperNet fibre. In Calgary, gigabit fibre for around $150 a month is routine for businesses and homes. Fibre announcements for small towns make headlines, but the follow-through is another matter. Meanwhile, Medicine Hat businesses are stuck choosing between unreliable coax and overpriced copper (VDSL, typically capped at 120 Mbps). Many larger businesses end up paying both TELUS and Shaw (now Rogers), because neither is good enough on its own.
Alberta SuperNet was transformative for the public institutions it connects. But it also took the anchor tenants (government, education, health) off the open market. That gutted the business case for any provider, independent or incumbent, to build further in places without big-city density.
I'd like to see the City of Medicine Hat use what it already has, its municipal fibre and its rights-of-way, to make wholesale fibre to the premises possible here.
Want fibre in your community? Register your interest.
Sources
- Internet Society Pulse, IXP tracker: Canada
- City of Medicine Hat, electricity
- Lexpert, Hut 8 Mining enters into electricity supply agreement with City of Medicine Hat (June 2018)
- AESO, interim approach to large load connections (June 2025)
- BLG, Data centre regulation in Alberta (July 2026)
- PeeringDB, SpokaneIX
- PeeringDB, YRIX (Billings)
- PeeringDB, Montana Internet Corporation
- PeeringDB, Montana Opticom
- Auditor General of Alberta, Service Alberta: Contract Management Processes (November 2018)
- City of Medicine Hat, Neat to Know (fibre optics installation update, August 2026)
- YYCIX, Calgary Internet Exchange
- Calgary to Brooks to Medicine Hat fibre (wholesale.bell.ca)
- Alberta SuperNet base network fibre (wiki.cybera.ca)
- Brooks municipal fibre backbone (doi.org)
- Hut 8 Medicine Hat site (hut8.com)
- Lethbridge city fibre in industrial parks (lethbridgenewsnow.com)
- Medicine Hat municipal electric and gas utilities (medicinehat.ca)
- Basemap: © OpenStreetMap contributors, via Protomaps