Bandwidth pressures a concern for indigenous ISPs

Internet service providers (ISPs) in rural and remote communities are trying to keep up with the appetite of users consuming ever-higher amounts of data, especially as video streaming services and gaming become mainstays in the household. “The digital generation always connected. They want everything now, so that’s where we’ve seen a huge impact on our bandwidth,” said Michael Jolly, director of telecommunications and IT at Creecable, an Indigenous community ISP operating out of Moose Factory, Ontario. “We can’t afford to keep buying more bandwidth as we get saturated.” Jolly was addressing a question about the impact of content on the small provider’s network Thursday, at the two-day Indigenous Connectivity Summit in Inuvik hosted by the Internet Society. The bandwidth issue is a bit of a break from traditional discussions on how to bring the internet to those areas, which have been viewed historically as economically prohibitive for telecoms. Community and non-profit models, such as those co-sponsored by governments, have been one way to address that gap. Jolly observed examples including gaming, Netflix Inc., social media, and Apple Inc.’s TV as applications and services that consume a chunk of the bandwidth. To illustrate the problem, he noted that four years ago, one resident consumed 100 GB in a month, whereas previously, the company was seeing an average monthly bandwidth consumption of five to 10 MB. Creecable’s website does not mention whether it provides unlimited bandwidth or not. “I’ve seen this shift where the consumption in every home is moving up and up toward the higher echelon now, and that is the challenge; that is what we see,” he said, noting the company has had to turn to “creative” ways to address the issue, including methods in caching -- the loading of content on servers for more efficient and faster delivery of that content. Creecable serves about 900 homes and businesses in the communities of Moosonee and Moose Factory near James Bay, according to its website. It was developed out of a consortium consisting of Moose Factory Cable Inc., Moosonee Cable TV Systems, Moose Band Development Corporation Ltd., and MoCreebec. The hybrid fibre coaxial network has been operational since 2002. But Creecable isn’t the only small ISP feeling the bandwidth pinch. Penny Carpenter, network business manager at the Kuhkenah Network (K-Net), which provides telecom services in First Nation communities in remote areas of northwestern Ontario and beyond, said the increasing demand for bandwidth is escalating costs to upgrade and maintain the network. There has been more demand of gigabytes, whereas once upon a time the pipes they offered had capacity for 1.5 megabytes, she said. “It is a big challenge to really balance the needs of the community, as they also want to continue to upgrade their cable plans. Some communities will start to get fibre-to-the-home , so that of course will require more bandwidth,” she said. Late last month, the CRTC announced the details of its $750-million rural broadband fund, which set minimum speeds for projects to underserved communities at 25 Mbps download – half of the basic services threshold it set nearly two years ago. The funds will be distributed over five years, and the regulator will begin accepting applications next year. But the value of the fund irked Duane Smith, chair of the board of Inuvialuit Regional Corp., which manages the economic, social and cultural interests of the Inuvialuit. He wondered Thursday: “How far can that go in reality? This is Canada’s commitment in general.” The basic services mandate also stipulates that customers need to have the option of an unlimited internet plan. Jolly said the evolutionary next step for Creecable is to deliver FTTH. “We’ve been working on this project for about five years now. We’ve finally seen the technology somewhat stabilizing,” he said about fibre lines going straight to residences. “Now that we have more of a general idea ...if we have to run a fibre to every home, we can do it in the next network.” CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated that Creecable customers previously consumed an average of five to 10 Mbps, not five to 10 MB. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca

Bandwidth pressures a concern for indigenous ISPs

News | 10/11/2018 5:43 pm EDT

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