Wireless/Satellite Teamwork Delivers Service with Lightning Speed | |
Wireless/Satellite Teamwork Delivers Service with Lightning SpeedThe digital divide in rural parts of Eastern Ontario became a little smaller in April 2003, following an announcement that Telesat Canada and Storm Internet Services were teaming up to provide high-speed Internet accessibility to the township of North Stormont and its 6500 residents and business owners.
The township of North Stormont, located 40 minutes outside of Ottawa, becomes the first municipality to benefit from a joint agreement between Telesat and Storm that commits to delivering high speed Internet services to rural and remote areas of Canada.
Ray Charboneau, municipal clerk for the Township of North Stormont says that their agreement with the wireless provider Storm Internet is that the municipal office receives free high-speed service in exchange for allowing Storm to use the Crysler Village water tower as a platform for their antennas.
"This is a wonderful thing for North Stormont.", says Charboneau "We now feel like we're part and parcel of the rest of the world. We can now upload and download reports instantly and the service is much more solid and reliable than our previous dial up connection."
With the new high-speed service the community will now be able to participate in the region's new Internet voting program.
Peter Burpee of CEONET the area's regional community network organization said, "The North Stormont project never came
to us, probably because they had no need for external funding." |
With the new high-speed service the community will now be able to participate in the region's new Internet voting program.
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"This was a perfect demonstration project showing how a wireless service provider like Storm Internet can work with Telesat to deliver service to a community that might have been month's or even years away from getting high-speed service over telephone lines." says Dan Wilton, VP Marketing for Storm Internet.
"In this project Storm is testing a new business model." explained Wilton, "In regions where there is no ready access to fibre or wireless backhaul, Telesat's satellite service provides the perfect interim solution. It allows us to establish a market base in a new community which in time will justify the deployment of a high speed backbone into the area. " Benefits of a model like this include the fact Storm can grow its terrestrial network as client demand permits. Effectively, Storm can redeploy its ground station equipment, enabling communities on the outskirts of its network to get broadband connectivity where it simply doesn't exist today.
In nearby Chesterville, Storm has partnered with the Nestles factory to bring high speed service into the community. In this case Nestles helped subsidize the set up costs of connecting the community as an extension to Storm's wireless network which is making its way from Ottawa. Nestles also provides a platform for the broadcast antenna and building space to house the associated electronics.
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