Whistler Cable uses cable network to set up wireless Internet access in resort town

Whistler Cable in British Columbia is using its cable network to bring wireless Internet access to the resort town, and ward off threats to its TV distribution business from competitors, according to the cableco. Whistler Cable found itself having to defend its territory against competitors wanting to bring Internet access to hotels in exchange for giving them the in-room cable entertainment business, which is the incumbent’s bread and butter, says Whistler Cable president Ron Saperstein. So the cableco established its own wireless Internet access system. "Nobody in Canada has done anything like this," he adds. We’ve basically set up a wireless network in an entire community, something like the wireless network available at the University of British Columbia. But we’re doing a whole community." Saperstein says that the resort town of Aspen CO has established a similar wireless network, but he is unaware of any other similar venture in Canada. Whistler Cable uses its cable lines to bring the Internet to antennas close to buildings, where the signals are beamed inside the building and can be accessed inside wirelessly by computer. Ian Andrew Bell, consulting program manager for Whistler, says the cableco saved significant money by not setting up costly access points inside the buildings as is traditionally done. Instead, it opted to hit hotel rooms and offices by beaming the signal through the windows. As a result, he says Whistler Cable is going to be able to set up the entire village of Whistler for what it would traditionally cost for two hotels. He estimates that it costs about $5,000 per hotel site in deployment costs, and that it will take $100,000 to bring the network to the entire resort city. So far, 20 million access points have been sold and eleven sites have been established. Saperstein tells Canadian Communications Reports that the full launch of the wireless Internet offering is scheduled for Oct. 26. "The wireless network is on, but there are still some points that need to be put online," he notes. "We only have to get three or four more sites before we have the original village of Whistler totally up and running." There will be an estimated 25 sites by the time the network has totally evolved. By reducing the overhead of internal access points in buildings for the wireless delivery, Bell estimates profitability within 18 months. "Here’s how two years ago, I was going out and pitching hotels on how to enable their rooms with wireless networking services. You put dozens of access points inside the building, and one of the big challenges is shooting through the firewalling and framing inside these buildings. So you really have to double up the access points, particularly the deployment we had in downtown Vancouver," he said during a presentation last week at the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual meeting in Toronto. "We had three access points per floor, which is extremely expensive. You’ve got to put servers on their premises, you’ve got to have access to them, and you still have your last mile problem in that you have to get reasonably high bandwidth to the hotel so that you can share it with a couple hundred users in a hotel. Our strategy was actually a little dumber, a little simpler, and a little more drastic." Instead, Whistler Cable chose to shoot through the glass patio doors of buildings, which Bell says has allowed better penetration into the rooms. "There’s a lot less metal and reinforcement concrete between the outside of the building and a room than there is between the inside of the building and a room. Also, while I’m shooting at one building from an outside access point, I’d also be hitting another building beside it." Saperstein tells CCR that there isn’t a last mile problem because cable fibre is used to bring the Internet access to the antennas. "We’re about 10 times faster than DSL with the wireless network because of our cable modems," he points out. "And it’s more secure than DSL. By default every user is firewalled." Bell adds, "We’ve had pretty effective coverage. Because it’s a cable modem network and I’ve got a very fast network between the wireless antenna and the actual customers, I don’t have to worry about how big a web page is or how fat it is or how much bandwidth it takes up." Whistler Cable has partnered with four companies to establish the wireless network: Cisco Systems provides the access points, Maxrad supplies the antennas, SolutionsInc has built the subscriber management system, and Intel is helping market the service. The environment in Whistler is conducive to a wireless network of this type, according to Saperstein. The resort gets about 1.2 million visitors annually, many of whom come from the United States. The visitors are generally wealthy and many are "business vacationers" in need of Internet access. There are also a number of itinerant locals, who live and work in Whistler, but who don’t want to sign up for high-speed Internet because they’re only around for several months. Local organizations, such as Intrawest, Whistler/Blackcom and rental companies and outfitters, were also looking for mobile and multipoint data solutions. As well, companies such as Lodgenet, Guestek, and OnCommand are exploiting hotel room Internet services to drive in-room entertainment streams, Bell notes. The municipality is also seeking to establish Whistler as a conference destination, and had partnered with a Florida company to build a wireless Internet service. But hotel owners and property managers are reluctant to invest in Internet infrastructure for in-room service. So Saperstein is using his cable network to build a wireless Internet infrastructure, which he eventually plans to resell to third parties. Just as importantly, he feels that by setting up his own wireless Internet system, he has closed the city to outsiders looking to set up similar systems. At the moment, customers access the wireless Internet gateway in two ways. They can purchase prepaid wireless cards at local shops and use them to get onto the network. If they have the right computer hardware, they will see Whistler Cable’s network as a wireless option, they enter the web page wireless.whooshnet.com and enter their credit card number. The web is used to register and authenticate customers and payment is made over it. "Effectively, customers completely self provision," says Bell. That eliminates truck rolls, individual customer modems and cabling, he notes. Bell sees the Whistler Cable experiment as unique. "There aren’t a lot of these wireless networks in the world. What you mostly have is people who have one antenna in a Starbucks, and they’ll get you while you’re having your cappuccino. There aren’t a lot of people who are willing to spend $100,000 to actually take ownership of a city," states Bell. Other cablecos are implementing wireless networks through the use of licensed spectrum and the erection of large towers, similar to cell phone network infrastructure. Source Cable in Hamilton, for example, has deployed a system using licence-free spectrum to bring wireless Internet access to the outer edges of the city.

Whistler Cable uses cable network to set up wireless Internet access in resort town

Broadcast | October 3, 2003

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