Regional broadband networks show early signs of connecting rural Canadians

Community broadband networks are proving to be a most effective manner of delivering bandwidth, especially to smaller and remote areas. Several presentations at a conference held last week in Ottawa highlighted the progress being made in the rollout of such networks. The need for networks was best illustrated by Glen Barnden, project manager of the Simcoe Community Access Network (SCAN). He told delegates to Broadband Canada that it took him an hour and a half to upload his presentation to send it to conference organizers. "It takes one hour to drive to Toronto if the traffic is good," he noted dryly. SCAN is a partnership involving municipalities, hospitals, school boards, and similar bodies in the Ontario midlands. The only large city in the region is Barrie, an exurb north of Toronto. SCAN’s initial request for proposal received four responses with different solutions. Bell Canada proposed using a POTS service, while the local public utility commissions joined up with Integrated Cable Systems Inc. (ICS) to offer a fibre lay. Group Telecom Inc. made a proposal that relied on fibre for 85 per cent of its deployment. A wireless solution was suggested by Reagan/Grant Engineering. The PUC option, operating under the name SCBN, was ultimately adopted by SCAN (NL, June 18/01). ICS is also a partner in the Upper Canada Network (UCNet) operating in eastern Ontario. The grid serves the county of Leeds and Grenville, with Brockville being the major centre. Other companies involved with the deployment are AT&T Canada, Hydro One Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., and Eastern Independent Telecommunications Inc. UCNet CEO/vice-chair Vic Allen described the development of the network to delegates. The initial market survey was done in 1998, with a business case being prepared the following year. A proposal to the provincial Telecommunications Access Partnerships (TAP) program was made in 1999. The network RFP was issued last year and the network is now operational. The backbone connects local governments, hospitals and Kemptville College, a division of the University of Guelph. UCNet has towers in Brockville, Smiths Falls/Merrickville, Kemptville, Spencerville, and Prescott providing 45 Mbps connections. Community connections link the network with Kingston and Ottawa at speeds of 12 Mbps.Allen is hopeful the network will be host to several telecom players. He believes the industry is still suffering the aftereffects of having been a monopoly for so long. "The whole concept on connectivity presupposes competition," he asserts. "We’ve talked to two ISPs and we hope to talk to others." SuperNet ready in three yearsA community network on a grander scale was described by Victor Doerksen, Alberta’s minister of innovation & science. He is championing his province’s SuperNet plan, which was unveiled last year (NL, Nov. 6/00). He expects that within three years the network will reach 85 per cent of the communities in Alberta. Its principal private-sector partner, Bell Intrigna, is rolling out where networks and competition already exist. Intrigna will be the prime contractor responsible for the building of SuperNet, and will subcontract the build of the extended area to Axia IP Services. The minister concedes the intricacies of the plan delayed its implementation slightly, as final agreements were not signed until July 24. "The initial contract negotiations actually took a fair length of time because it’s a huge project. We didn’t get the contract signed until July, which maybe slowed it down just a touch," Doerksen tells Network Letter. "What we’re currently in the process of doing is finalizing the build schedule and there’s two components. One is the base network, which Bell is instrumental in and the other is the extended network, which Axia is the primary build developer. So we’re close to finalizing those, we’re still within our three-year target. That’s still the plan and in fact, if we are able to accelerate the dollars we could probably do it sooner." Getting and saving money is an overriding theme of all the community grids. SuperNet has insisted that Intrigna be responsible for any cost overruns. Doerksen reminds people that Alberta was promoting the connectivity project long before the National Broadband Task Force was struck. Had Paul Martin found funding for the project in the last budget, the province would have been in line to get the cash. "If the feds had come in with an announcement to do broadband, we would have just made sure that we weren’t shortchanged because of our initiative that we have already undertaken," he asserts. "So I think we would have gone to them looking to bulk up our service offering. But we were committed to this before and it really hasn’t changed that at all." Allen reports that a partnership UCNet has made with a Kingston utility is already showing results. Bundled access to big pipe has led to monthly connection costs falling from $1,000 to $660.SCAN was amazed at the savings its partnerships brought it. Initial studies suggested bandwidth costs ranged from $2,400 a month for 1.54 Mbps (essentially the power of a T1 connection) to 10 Mbps costing anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 each month. The SCBN partnership says economies of scale will allow it to deliver 100 Mbps at costs of $500 to $800 monthly. "We fell off our chairs. We thought they’d forgot a zero," Barnden laughs. Doerksen compares extending broadband to remote areas to the efforts to eliminate party lines. He knows that SuperNet will be watched closely by proponents of networks and the naysayers, but that doesn’t faze him. "We are pressing ahead, not because we have our heads in the sand, but because we have our heads in the future," he states.

Regional broadband networks show early signs of connecting rural Canadians

News | December 18, 2001

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