Rural Affairs Committee Chooses XplorNet

The City of Ottawa's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee has adopted the report which recommends choosing XplorNet (i.e. Barrett Xplore Inc.; BXI) as its partner in completing the high-speed Internet coverage of rural Ottawa. The report was approved by the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee yesterday, and goes to full Council on Wednesday (March 28) for what is expected to be final approval to begin negotiations with XplorNet.

According to the report, the Committee had three ISPs to choose from: XplorNet, Storm Internet and Inukshuk Wireless Inc (i.e. Bell's Sympatico Unplugged and Rogers' Portable Internet). XplorNet was seen as the best option, and the City will be contributing $750,000 to the project, pending final approval.

One negative thing the report does mention is that 275-475 homes or businesses still may have to use two-way high-speed satellite access (also available from XplorNet), even after the project is completed. This may be one of the keys to partnering with XplorNet, since their satellite Internet service virtually guarentees 100% rural coverage, and (IIRC) neither Storm nor Bell/Rogers can provide such coverage. It will be interesting to see how many homes will actually fall into the satellite gap, once the project is completed. The report estimates that XplorNet will be able to provide fixed wireless service to 95% of the remaining 40% of rural Ottawa currently unserviced by broadband; so when the project is completed, ~98% of rural Ottawa will have broadband access via wireline (e.g. DSL, cable) or wireless services. That's pretty respectable, and reasonable, coverage.

It will also be interesting to see if Bell/Rogers rise to the competition and continue the deployment of their portable/unplugged Internet services in the area, or will the fact that they are not the City's Preferred Partner result in the them retreating back into the suburbs to continue their battle against each other.

Another question I have is who will finally pick up Arryba's network, which Storm has been operating since Arryba's demise last fall? From my myopic view, I can see either Storm or XplorNet buying up Arryba's former network. Time will tell in this matter, as in all things.