WiMAX is coming to rural Ontario, but don’t hold your breath

There's no arguing that the digital divide between rural and urban Canadians isn't bridged yet, but efforts are being made to continue to close the gap. "We're taking baby steps today," says Kevin Suitor, VP of marketing and business development at Redline Communications. On May 14, Comcentric Networking, a consortium of several networking and communications providers, announced the deployment of Redline's RedMAX systems in rural Southwestern Ontario. The new 802.16d WiMAX networks will enable Quadro Communications Co-operative, a part owner of Comcentric that operates in the area, to replace approximately 200 pre-WiMAX wireless subscriptions on the 3.5MHz band. They aim to expand their services to 500 subscribers. "This is just the early phase of true, broadband wireless deployment," adds Suitor. Comcentric hold 3.5 MHz licences in the Huron, Bruce, Perth and Grey counties of Ontatrio - a large area with a population of more than 300,000. But operating in large geographic areas with disperse populations isn't profit-friendly."At this stage we're just trying to break even. We charge our customers $45 a month, no installation charges, no upfront fee. These are thin margins," explains Tim DeWeerd, Quadro's general manager and a director with Comcentric. He estimates their cost per subscriber at $1200, including capital costs."As a co-operative we have a different view of how things should happen. We're service, rather than profit-driven. We are not inclined to distribute dividends to equity investors. With telecommunication infrastructure in rural areas, you simply cannot justify the business plan if you want to dividend profits out to investors," DeWeerd explains. WiMAX has long been hailed as the bridge in the digital divide, but access continues to be patchwork, with a concentration in urban and suburban areas. "Most of the , licence holders seem to be looking at suburban markets that aren't completely covered by Telus, Rogers or Bell," says Suitor. "But they are also looking at extra-urban and urban enclaves like Stoufville ON and Caledon ON."And Hamilton. On May 25, Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. and Mipps Inc. announced a trial of an 802.16e WiMAX network in the 3.5GHz band. Alcatel-Lucent is the network equipment supplier for North America's first mobile trial of mobile WiMAX in this band, while Mipps is building the infrastructure. Industry insiders are eagerly watching. Inukshuk Wireless Inc. , a joint venture between Bell Canada and Rogers , is one of the largest broadband wireless licence-holders in Canada. Harnessing the resources of both networks, they've established broadband services in more than 90 centres across Canada in the 2.5 GHz band. Most of their networks are confined to urban and suburban areas, including: Halifax, Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo, Calgary and the greater Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver areas. But they are expanding into under-serviced and un-serviced rural areas.Although Bell Canada markets some of these networks as WiMAX, David Robinson, VP of business implementation for Rogers Communications tells Report on Wireless these are all proprietary, or pre-WiMAX, networks. WiMAX is, however, one of the options they are considering for future deployments as they prepare to launch their 3.5GHz networks, particularly with the 802.16e mobile standard."The (802.16d) simply didn't have the eco-systems we require. By which I mean, base stations you can buy from multiple vendors, customer premises equipment you can buy that are cost-effective and in multiple formats. We need cards that go in laptops and desktops, embedded radios, handheld gaming terminals, you name it," Robinson explains."We decided that (the 802.16d) eco-system simply would never develop. We, along with many others believe that 802.16e, however, will create a very cost-effective ecosystem of base stations and customer premises equipment," he adds.The 802.16e standard is already gaining momentum south of the border. Sprint Nextel is in the midst of deploying its mobile WiMAX network and expects to make several launches by year-end. They aim to reach 100 million people across the US by the end of 2008.In Canada, deployments will continue on a market-by-market basis. In fact few, including Industry Canada, are even keeping track of WiMAX deployments. "It is difficult to say how many WiMAX deployments there are and who is deploying at this point," says Industry Canada spokesperson Denis Dummer. "We have and will continue to make spectrum available, however the market decides on the appropriate technologies and services," he adds.Without intervention, some fear that allowing the markets to decide who has high-speed or WiMAX access will only exacerbate the digital divide. "I'm concerned about rural Canada and the digital divide. The ‘haves' and ‘have nots' of broadband access is going to increase." laments DeWeerd. "Until there is an incentive for businesses to get out there, there's a concern as to how fast WiMAX will get there."Robinson is enthused by mobile WiMAX's potential, but expects urban and larger markets to lead the way. "WiMAX is an air interface technology. Unfortunately building a wireless Internet service is only partly about the air interface and is increasingly about the site assets - the towers and the backhaul. That's more than half the cost," explains Robinson. "And in rural areas, that's the problem. They don't have that yet." Suitor echoes a similar feeling. "This is a long-term transition to a new level of technology," he says . "If we take a look at the cellular market, it's taken approximately 20 years to reach this level of penetration. I can't imagine that WiMAX will take less."

WiMAX is coming to rural Ontario, but don’t hold your breath

News | 06/12/2007 1:00 pm EDT

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