Morden has released a Request for Proposal (RFP) to Internet Service Providers (ISP) to bring fibre optic Internet to the community in 2020.

Mayor Brandon Burley says the city has been in conversations with providers for several months, and the RFP checks all the boxes for the legwork Morden has to do in tendering to ensure the city gets the best value for its dollar.

With the immediate need for the Internet within the community, with significant parts of the population only having access to 15 Mbps or less, a priority has been set to bring those services to residents.

"We've struggled both publicly and then silently with Morenet and Internet infrastructure over the last few months. One thing we've really stressed as Council is we can't be people who say "no" to things, and we have to be people who get things done and move things forward. I think the direction we've provided city staff in pursuing this is a step forward in ensuring we're solution providers, not just problem finders."

The city made it clear to the potential ISP they not only have to bring fibre optic technology and maintain the infrastructure on a long-term basis, but they must also own and operate the system, which will provide high-speed Internet access to Morden residents and businesses without ongoing involvement from the city.

The city will evaluate the proposals they receive in several categories:

Overall Coverage for Citizens Businesses Qualifications of Team Past Performance Project Timeline

Cost to the City

Innovation Methodology

Financial Stability

Quality of Services

Technical Elements of Proposal

Proposal deadlines are January 31, 2020, giving Council enough time to make an educated decision in time for the 2020 budget.

Burley says the contract is to negotiate for initial connectivity, and once completed, all others will be free to use the right of way.

"The city is interested in how the provision of fibre networks between our buildings can increase the security of our city infrastructure and reduce the cost of internally doing business, by only having to have one Internet contract to share between our community. We only have to have servers in one facility rather than five or six."

He adds the city has engaged IT People Consulting on the decisions to help guide Council's judgement.

In preliminary conversations between ISPs, Burley says they can provide in 2020 with some overlap in 2021.