• How Coquitlam Turned Fiber into Growth
• Coral Gables Receives GeoGov’s Innovation in Education, Workforce Development, and Capacity Building Award
• About ICF Membership

How Coquitlam Turned Fiber into Growth

QNet, short for the Coquitlam Optical Network, is 2024 Smart21 Community Coquitlam’s municipally owned fiber-optic network, launched in 2008 as Canada’s first open access municipal fiber-optic leasing utility. It leases its high quality fiber cables to private telecom firms at affordable rates, who then deliver ultra-high speed internet, phone, TV/video and cellular services to homes and businesses. Today, the QNEt network spans nearly 90 km across Coquitlam, serving businesses, schools, government buildings, shopping centers, industrial properties and residential high-rises.

By providing competitive broadband with speeds up to 10 Gbps through QNet, colocation at a state-of-the-art data center and interconnections across Metro Vancouver, Coquitlam has positioned itself as a cost-effective, lower-density alternative to nearby Vancouver. Building on this success, the city is now targeting mid-size and large tech firms for expansion or relocation, while also prioritizing office space, cultural amenities and partnerships with regional innovation networks.

Learn more about how Coquitlam built and supports QNet to this day in ICF’s Community Accelerator course Connectivity: Foundation of Digital Opportunity. Community Accelerator courses are self paced and free for ICF Members!

Coral Gables Receives GeoGov’s Innovation in Education, Workforce Development, and Capacity Building Award

At GeoGov Summit 2025, 2025 Smart21 Community Coral Gables, Florida, USA received the Innovation in Education, Workforce Development, and Capacity Building Award! This is the third major recognition received this year by the city’s Innovation & Technology Lab and STEM Incubator program. IT GIS Manager Mark Hebert accepted the award on behalf of Coral Gables at the GeoGove Summit ceremony.

The GeoGov Summit 2025 award committee said: “This award honors your groundbreaking efforts to build geospatial talent, strengthen capacity, and empower future leaders. Your work is helping to ensure that the geospatial community continues to grow and thrive.”

Learn more about how Coral Gables, a Certified Intelligent Community, implemented a robust and resilient technology infrastructure and provides high quality of life for their citizens through both technological innovations and more traditional quality of life considerations like walkability and weather in their ICF Profile.
 

About ICF Membership

Local governments, not-for-profits and for-profit businesses join ICF to gain benefits that help drive their growth and development. Through ICF, they gain new insights, identify winning strategies and connect with people and organizations who can help them achieve more. ICF welcomes local and regional government bodies as community members. Community membership entitles all employees to individual membership that includes the benefits available to the institution, such as free access to Community Accelerator courses and ICF reports. Learn more about ICF Membership.