Welcome to the self-proclaimed Rural Ottawa High-Speed Internet Blog. High-speed Internet access is virtually ubiquitous in the urban and suburban areas of Ottawa, but when I started this blog in 2005, only about 60% of the rural areas of Ottawa have coverage. However, even for rural citizens, high-speed Internet access is becoming as necessary as telephone service. Happily, high-speed coverage for rural Ottawa has increased significantly, and not only is coverage reportedly above 90%, many rural residents and businesses now have more than one choice of high-speed ISP.

This purpose of this weblog is to track news and events related to high-speed (broadband) Internet access in the rural areas of Ottawa and, to a lesser extent, in nearby townships.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

RipNet High-Speed Wireless Internet Access

One of my neighbours has been in contact with RipNet of Brockville. RipNet offers high-speed wireless Internet access in the Leed & Grenville area. They have a tower in Kemptville which reportedly can provide service to First Line Road; my neighbour has had a site-survey and although a 65-foot tower would be required, service can be obtained.

RipNet provides a Standard Residential service of 1 Mbps download and 256 Kbps upload at ~$40 per month, although they currently have a promotion going on. They also offer business services. They have a couple of installation packages, including equipment purchase (~$1290 equipment cost plus $270 installation plus GST) and equipment rental ($20 monthly plus $540 admin fee).

My immediate concerns are that the total monthly costs (for the rental option) are $60 + GST, which is a little high compared to other wireless ISPs. Furthermore, the install cost is higher than the $500 install cost that I recommend as a maximum on my Definitions webpage (and higher than other wireless ISPs). RipNet is not clear about the number of email accounts provided with the service, although I'm sure that's reasonably simple to determine (they provide 5 email accounts with their DSL service).

I am in the process of investigating RipNet's service offerings further. I will post subsequent useful info here.

-Chris

posted by Chris Spencer at 4:56 pm 2 comments

2 Comments:

Blogger Chris Spencer said...

I've received some feedback to indicate that RipNet currently has some subscribers in the First Line Road and Waterson Corners areas.

June 09, 2005 11:55 am  
Blogger Chris Spencer said...

On Thursday, I had RipNet perform a site survey oat my property. Even with a 20' extension on my ~35' tower, they couldn't get a good signal. That's not to say that others in the area couldn't get a signal.

Also, RipNet does not appear to be interested in installing a 900 MHz Neighbourhood Network, citing the limited number of houses and the short-range (1-2km) of their non-LOS technology as the reasons.

All this implies that anyone interested in RipNet's service may have to have a fairly high tower on their property. I've heard a rumour that the City of Ottawa requires special permits and site plans for towers over ~52', but I do not have any details.

If you are interested in seeing if RipNet's service is available at your location, please contact them directly: http://www.ripnet.com

June 13, 2005 11:55 am  

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