SuperNet opening up opportunities for small WISPs looking to expand reach

With the completion of the Alberta pan-provincial SuperNet project scheduled for completion this fall, significant opportunities have opened up for smaller wireless Internet service providers to expand their market reach without having to spend substantial amounts of money to reach multiple communities. Despite some concern that the first phase of the network wouldn’t be finished by the April 30 deadline, Axia and Bell, two prime builders of the network, came through. Not only does the broadband network provide public and para-public institutions, such as government institutions, schools and hospitals, with fibre to the premise, it allows wireless ISPs to build off-ramps to serve rural communities. Those off-ramps would consist of a base stations, beaming signals into small towns from which residential and businesses would get broadband access. In a recent briefing with analysts, Bell Canada senior VP audit and risk management Mahes Wickramasinghe, noted the ability of other providers to use the network was one of the guiding government principles. "Not only Bell, (but) other companies can provide services in rural communities," he said. The purpose of SuperNet is to bring urban technology and urban pricing to rural Albertan residences and businesses. An ISP providing service Calgary or Edmonton, for example, will be able to offer comparable prices and service to a rural community. Two Alberta wireless ISPs, which spoke to Report on Wireless last month, said the network is an integral part in not only bringing broadband to rural communities, but also in providing service providers bandwidth that would otherwise not be available. "That’s really the key to the whole business of extending services to the rural, outlying areas. The government has provided the network that gets us to each of these communities and then our challenge is just the last mile," Chet Perry, president of Cochrane AB-based Pathcom Wireless Inc., tells Report on Wireless. "A large portion of our population outside of the major urban centres is within easy range of (SuperNet’s) Pop sites with a wireless site, so that takes care of providing Internet services to those that would still be waiting some time for the price to be right." Neil Barrett, VP of business development at Fatbanana Broadband Inc., agrees that this a boon to independent wireless ISPs. "The model where you’re going to own last mile facilities, and then backhaul over the SuperNet, that’s the animal that the WISPs can benefit from," he tells RoW. Fatbanana president Dan Grisdale says this is about providing the companies driving economic development in rural communities the tools they need to offer their subscribers, both residential and business, better service. With SuperNet being an independent network not owned by a major telco or cableco, smaller WISPs can participate and benefit from accessing it. SuperNet is a significant development for Pathcom because it can now expand the reach of high-bandwidth services to clients in some of the remotest areas of the province. "With SuperNet, we can with maybe two hops get to those clients with a high-bandwidth option. For the last 12 years, we’ve served those clients with VSAT and we still continue to do that. But, the SuperNet in combination with our fixed wireless licences allows us to get out there with larger bandwidth," Perry says. There are, however, limitations to the use of the SuperNet by the smaller service providers. Bell’s competitors can’t use SuperNet to connect two base-area communities, such as Calgary and Edmonton, together. Bell has exclusivity when it comes to interconnection between the base areas, which account for more than 80% of the population of Alberta. During the analyst briefing, Bell said that there were more than 1,000 paying customers on the network, primarily from government and MUSH sector (municipalities, utilities, schools and hospitals), and that the company was turning on 150 new customers per week.

SuperNet opening up opportunities for small WISPs looking to expand reach

News | 06/16/2005 4:00 am EDT

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