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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Postings & Moderation
I've opened up this blog to allow anyone to post to it. However, I continue to moderate and will remove any inappropriate content, e.g. anything not related to high-speed internet access in the rural Ottawa, the Ottawa Valley, Eastern Ontario, and the Outaouais.
Update: Arryba-to-Storm Transition
For those of you who have applied to transition your high-speed wireless Internet access service from
Arryba Communications to
Storm Internet (as I have), here is what I have found out to-date:
- Storm is currently providing service to Arryba's (former) customers for free, until such time as the transition is completed.
- For Arryba customers wishing to transition to Storm's service, there will be a one-time admin fee of $75... so maybe the current service is not so free. Oh well.
- Monthly service fees will be $40 for service of up to 3 Mbps download (i.e. faster than Arryba).
- For customers with Arryba equipment on-site, Storm is offering a service & maintenance option of $10 per month. Depending on how the bankruptcy process handles Arryba, this may change.
- Storm appears to be planning to complete the transition of Arryba customers by the end of September.
For more information, please contact
Storm Internet at
(613) 567-6585.
7 Comments:
Is Storm saying that all Arryba cusotmers should be back up and running? The reasons I ask, is that I was pointing to the Metcalfe Golf Course tower before things went haywire, and I still have no service.
Arryba had previously indicated to me that all their customers should have service restored. If you are still not getting service, you should contact Storm to see if they can help. It is important to remember that Arryba is now defunct and Storm has not taken over Arryba's former network. However, it is my understanding that Storm is making plans to assume all of Arryba's customers.
When I spoke with Storm a couple weeks ago about the possible transfer, the $10/month service fee still seemed an uncertain arrangement. Since neither we nor Storm currently own the equipment on our properties, technically I don't believe such a service arrangement can exist. If something happens with the Arryba equipment requiring service, Storm does not have a legal right to repair/replace that equipment, and we don't have legal right to permit it. (Unless maybe there is some sort of abandonment law that put the gear in our ownership once Arryba became a non-responsive company.)
In any case, with no guarantee that Storm will be able to aquire Arryba's gear, if one does break in the meantime, is Storm really going to replace it with a brand new unit within the $10/month fee? There seemed a lot of unanswered questions here. Has anyone yet seen the text for such a service agreement?
Note I have not yet transferred to Storm, as I was told that would not be possible until the legal situation/ownership of Arryba's equipment is sorted out. I was told that Storm was currently only making a list of interested Arryba customers, but not actually transferring anyone yet (unless you want to pay for a whole Storm installation from scratch).
Also, Arryba's service had "guaranteed" a minimum service speed, as their rates were based on various speed levels. Storm has no such arrangement. A neighbour of mine who has been with Storm for some time reports speeds in peak periods as slow as dial-up. Of course they are not on the same transmitter as I am, and may perhaps be using older technology (the Storm rep couldn't confirm). In any case, it is worth noting that Storm does not have a bandwidth guarantee, and their rates are higher.
KDJ
A couple of comments on the previous comments from KDJ...
I've wondered about the $10 service fee myself, but I figure if the Arryba gear gets damaged and I cannot contact Arryba to have it removed or repaired, then as the property owner, I figure I'm within my rights to have it removed and replaced.
The $10 service fee is Storm's answer to the normal modem rental fee that they levy, which obviously they cannot do on equipment not owned by them.
My guess is that if you refused to pay the fee, and the equipment eventually needed to be repaired or replaced, Storm might hit you for their $200 installation fee. If that would be th case, then it's a bit of a gamble as to which you think will save you money.
I've been using Storm's free-for-Arryba-customers service for a month now, including email. I've not had any problems with speeds, and I've been working from home online some days from 8am until after 5pm.
Storm may not have a minimum speed guarentee, but they do advertise a higher maximum speed (3 Mbps down) than any of Arryba's service options, IIRC.
The bottom-line is that for some of us, there aren't a lot of other high-speed options. Personally, if I don't continue with Storm, I can install a 65' tower and get service from RipNet, or I can go with 2-way satellite... or I can wait until Bell or Rogers deploys their portable Internet service in my neighbourhood.
-Chris
Yeah, I'm in the same boat, only real option is Storm. Ironically enough, a year ago I tried to get started with Storm, and their guy never showed up for the installation (and I took the day off work for it). I didn't get an apology, reason, excuse, nothing. A day or so later I get a voice mail saying my installation was rescheduled for 5 months later, with no explanation. I said screw 'em and went with Arryba (not that they were any faster). Funny that I'm now back with the same crew. I haven't heard great things about Storm's customer service, either, but I guess we're really picking from the lesser of evils here..., kinda like the municipal elections! ;)
If I may ask, are you in an active agreement with Storm right now? I mean are you paying them anything, like the $10 fee?
On a related note, last week I got a notice in my mailbox, from a Tom & Kari Toomey regarding an info session they were hosting this past Sunday with Bill McDougall and Jose Gonzalez (the former Arryba head who got sacked) about this new company they've started called "Affiliated Rural Broadband Network Systems Inc." I gather the Toomey's are the ones who own the limo company at 590 David Manchester where Arryba got in the local papers for raising a tower there for them. Anyhow, I gather Gonzalez and friends are looking for money to start things all over again. Lightning notwithstanding, it seems his first effort was a sufficient disaster that I don't know how this could possibly have any credibility---the company had more issues than just lightning strikes. At any rate, I'm wondering if anyone else heard about this session on Sunday and attended it? I was out of town.
KDJ
I had Storm at my place on 4 separate occassions between 2001 and 2005. Funny that they never offered to put up a tower for me, even though they used to list the service on their web site.
I know that about a year ago, Storm made a posting on their website that they were not accepting any new applications for service until December 2005 or later, and I'd heard rumours about equipment shortages. That might be why you got pushed back 5 months.
I'm currently not paying any money to Storm, as they have not yet approached me to do so.
Also, I heard about the session with ARBNS, but I did not attend. It's not in my area, and I was warey of the up-front investment, given all the goings-on with Arryba and ABRNS' relation to Arryba.
My biggest problem Storm is it seems that they have aproblem with their DNS servers or something. I sometimes have to attempt several times to get to get to a website before it loads. However, if I tunnel into work, so that I'm effectively using my company's routers, I do have any problems, so I'm reasonably sure the problem isn't at my end. I haven't actually brought it up with Storm, since I'm currently getting the service for free. I wonder if anyone else is having the same problem.
I was on Storm's eqpt shortage list for ages, and then when they got the gear I was scheduled for install, but the guy never showed when he was supposed to. Then I got the arbitrary delay (actually two in a row). Weird...
I haven't had any noticeable web problems since Storm stepped in (nor before that). It might depend on where you're at. I gather storm has different technologies out there, and maybe the one in your Storm-Arryba feed is not a great one..., it could be the same problem for my neighbour with the slow connections.
KDJ
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