City Responds to West Carleton Posting
In response to an earlier posting on this blog entitled "Internet Hi-Speed (Broadband) Access in West Carleton", Chris Cope, Economic Development Consultant for the City of Ottawa, has requested that I post the following message.
As subject matter expert on the City's Broadband initiative, I'd like to respond to a number of recent enquiries and expand a bit on the objectives of the City’s broadband initiative. I hope that you will post this to your blog so that everyone can learn about the City's process and the reason that we are confident in, and excited to be announcing that "every house in Rural Ottawa now has access to high speed."
Right up front, I want to confirm that the City continues to work with Xplornet to assess today's fixed wireless coverage to determine if additional coverage is required. The process is well underway and will continue throughout the term of the City's contract with Xplornet. Although so far, the focus has been on the gaps designated by the City as having no service, many other areas are covered as well.
Some areas in West Carleton are heavily forested in every direction. In that context, one of the features that makes these neighbourhoods so wonderful, also limits broadband connectivity. The physics of radio frequency propagation (and not any plan to force customers toward satellite service) works against these locations regardless of tower heights. Cell phone coverage is spotty in West Carleton as well, as everyone knows, but that technology uses licensed radio spectrum which by nature, has a much greater ability of dealing with topography and foliage issues because of both frequency and significantly higher signal power.
High-speed or "broadband" Internet is not a utility that is provided by the City, but rather a communication service that is provided by independent private companies. Since 2003, the City has worked with virtually all of these companies, but they have increasingly indicated that there is no business case to spend money on infrastructure to extend their services beyond the larger villages and other populated areas. Where population is sparse, their investment would not provide a reasonable business return on investment even if everyone signed up for the service. This resulted in a situation where by fall 2006, about 40% of rural Ottawa had no access to any form of high-speed Internet and people living in these gap areas were unable to enjoy increasingly media-rich Internet sites and services using dial-up. The situation in West Carleton was even worse, where about two thirds of the homes in the Ward were unable to access any form of broadband.
The City wanted everyone to be able to have high-speed and set out to find a way that would cause one or more companies to accelerate their plans to extend their high-speed service to previously un-serviced areas. The private/public (P3) partnership with Barrett Xplore inc. (Xplornet) does just that, by providing a suite of high-speed services to the areas previously without service. We are delighted to be in a position to say that now everyone in rural Ottawa has access to some form of high-speed service and at prices that are similar to service offerings in urban Ottawa.
Xplornet offers a variety of services and although they are concentrating on their wireless service, they also offer a group of satellite high-speed options. There are up to 5 wireless packages varying from varying from $29.99 to $59.99 per month with corresponding download speeds between 300 Kbps to 5.0 Mbps. Not all wireless services are available in all areas however, and because Xplornet uses line-of-sight technology for their fixed wireless system there will be some rural Ottawa residents, especially those that live in heavily forested areas or where topography works at odds to a strong signal, who cannot receive fixed wireless service. That's why Ottawa and Xplornet are offering state-of-the-art satellite broadband to ensure everyone has access to high-speed.
There are 4 satellite packages available for consumers with speeds varying from 512 Kbps to 2.0 Mbps at prices ranging from $49.99 to $179.99 per month. The basic installation fee for satellite is an "all-in" fee of $199 on a 3-year contract. This compares to elsewhere in Canada where the same installation is $399 for equipment plus the cost of labour resulting in a total cost of $600 to $900.
For comparison, one of the major telephone companies in Ottawa offers high-speed service in the City's urban area at $49 per month although they too have smaller and larger packages. Their wireless service is $55 per month. Similarly, a local cable company offers their most popular Internet on Cable service at $52.95 per month (plus $3 per month modem rental or $99.95 modem purchase plus taxes) although they too have several other packages including a light version at $32.95 Monthly Service Fee (plus $3 per month modem rental or $99.95 modem purchase plus taxes).
Some people are disappointed to learn that their home is not in a location where wireless service is available, but satellite service while a little more expensive is a tremendous improvement over dial-up. To give you a sense of this, here's a quote from Suzanne Bird, who operates a business from her home and is a recent satellite customer. Ms. Bird lives in a neighbourhood in West Carleton called the Pinery, which has beautiful tall trees:
It is important to note too, that should Xplornet's fixed wireless service become available at a later date to residents in areas not presently served by wireless, Xplornet will install the new wireless service and remove the satellite service at no additional cost. People should also know that Xplornet has a 30-day risk free guarantee. If they end up going ahead with the satellite service, they have 30 days to kick tires and if during that time they want to cancel, Xplornet will cancel the contract, come and remove the equipment and give them back their money. Xplornet is committed to having only satisfied customers and this seems to me to be an excellent way of ensuring this.
I hope this information is informative. I would encourage anyone with additional questions to follow up with me directly.
Chris Cope
Economic Development Consultant
Economic and Environmental Sustainability Branch
Email: Chris.Cope@ottawa.ca
(613) 580-2424 ext. 28991
As subject matter expert on the City's Broadband initiative, I'd like to respond to a number of recent enquiries and expand a bit on the objectives of the City’s broadband initiative. I hope that you will post this to your blog so that everyone can learn about the City's process and the reason that we are confident in, and excited to be announcing that "every house in Rural Ottawa now has access to high speed."
Right up front, I want to confirm that the City continues to work with Xplornet to assess today's fixed wireless coverage to determine if additional coverage is required. The process is well underway and will continue throughout the term of the City's contract with Xplornet. Although so far, the focus has been on the gaps designated by the City as having no service, many other areas are covered as well.
Some areas in West Carleton are heavily forested in every direction. In that context, one of the features that makes these neighbourhoods so wonderful, also limits broadband connectivity. The physics of radio frequency propagation (and not any plan to force customers toward satellite service) works against these locations regardless of tower heights. Cell phone coverage is spotty in West Carleton as well, as everyone knows, but that technology uses licensed radio spectrum which by nature, has a much greater ability of dealing with topography and foliage issues because of both frequency and significantly higher signal power.
High-speed or "broadband" Internet is not a utility that is provided by the City, but rather a communication service that is provided by independent private companies. Since 2003, the City has worked with virtually all of these companies, but they have increasingly indicated that there is no business case to spend money on infrastructure to extend their services beyond the larger villages and other populated areas. Where population is sparse, their investment would not provide a reasonable business return on investment even if everyone signed up for the service. This resulted in a situation where by fall 2006, about 40% of rural Ottawa had no access to any form of high-speed Internet and people living in these gap areas were unable to enjoy increasingly media-rich Internet sites and services using dial-up. The situation in West Carleton was even worse, where about two thirds of the homes in the Ward were unable to access any form of broadband.
The City wanted everyone to be able to have high-speed and set out to find a way that would cause one or more companies to accelerate their plans to extend their high-speed service to previously un-serviced areas. The private/public (P3) partnership with Barrett Xplore inc. (Xplornet) does just that, by providing a suite of high-speed services to the areas previously without service. We are delighted to be in a position to say that now everyone in rural Ottawa has access to some form of high-speed service and at prices that are similar to service offerings in urban Ottawa.
Xplornet offers a variety of services and although they are concentrating on their wireless service, they also offer a group of satellite high-speed options. There are up to 5 wireless packages varying from varying from $29.99 to $59.99 per month with corresponding download speeds between 300 Kbps to 5.0 Mbps. Not all wireless services are available in all areas however, and because Xplornet uses line-of-sight technology for their fixed wireless system there will be some rural Ottawa residents, especially those that live in heavily forested areas or where topography works at odds to a strong signal, who cannot receive fixed wireless service. That's why Ottawa and Xplornet are offering state-of-the-art satellite broadband to ensure everyone has access to high-speed.
There are 4 satellite packages available for consumers with speeds varying from 512 Kbps to 2.0 Mbps at prices ranging from $49.99 to $179.99 per month. The basic installation fee for satellite is an "all-in" fee of $199 on a 3-year contract. This compares to elsewhere in Canada where the same installation is $399 for equipment plus the cost of labour resulting in a total cost of $600 to $900.
For comparison, one of the major telephone companies in Ottawa offers high-speed service in the City's urban area at $49 per month although they too have smaller and larger packages. Their wireless service is $55 per month. Similarly, a local cable company offers their most popular Internet on Cable service at $52.95 per month (plus $3 per month modem rental or $99.95 modem purchase plus taxes) although they too have several other packages including a light version at $32.95 Monthly Service Fee (plus $3 per month modem rental or $99.95 modem purchase plus taxes).
Some people are disappointed to learn that their home is not in a location where wireless service is available, but satellite service while a little more expensive is a tremendous improvement over dial-up. To give you a sense of this, here's a quote from Suzanne Bird, who operates a business from her home and is a recent satellite customer. Ms. Bird lives in a neighbourhood in West Carleton called the Pinery, which has beautiful tall trees:
"As a "mum-preneur" balancing being a mom and operating my own business, I was having serious difficulty making the business work effectively in rural Ottawa. Why? Because like most businesses, photography is becoming more and more reliant on the internet - being able to send and receive images electronically instead of couriering or driving hard copies to clients around Ottawa. A rural business like mine was at a huge disadvantage because dial-up Internet made sending large files simply impossible.
I was at an impasse. The only way to balance rural living, family care and business was with high-speed Internet. Now that I have Xplornet using a satellite system my business has fundamentally changed. The gap between myself and photographers in urban Ottawa has closed, and I'm experiencing both growth in business, and more time at home. There's no question in my mind that business in rural Ottawa will expand, and the rural Ottawa lifestyle will get even better than it was before."
It is important to note too, that should Xplornet's fixed wireless service become available at a later date to residents in areas not presently served by wireless, Xplornet will install the new wireless service and remove the satellite service at no additional cost. People should also know that Xplornet has a 30-day risk free guarantee. If they end up going ahead with the satellite service, they have 30 days to kick tires and if during that time they want to cancel, Xplornet will cancel the contract, come and remove the equipment and give them back their money. Xplornet is committed to having only satisfied customers and this seems to me to be an excellent way of ensuring this.
I hope this information is informative. I would encourage anyone with additional questions to follow up with me directly.
Chris Cope
Economic Development Consultant
Economic and Environmental Sustainability Branch
Email: Chris.Cope@ottawa.ca
(613) 580-2424 ext. 28991
posted by Chris Spencer at 9:06 pm
5 comments
5 Comments:
Its quite sad that the city paid a million dollars to Xplornet, just so they could gain more customers. Anyone in Canada can get Xplornet satellite highspeed, they could offer 100% access to everyone before the city paid them a million. This was just one reason that Xplornet had NOT to try and put more towers up. They can either charge us $50-$200 a month for a service they already have setup, or they can spend their own money to setup new towers and charge $30-50 for a better high-speed service. The choice they've taken is obvious. In the end, the city has lost big time on this deal. Xplornet has received free advertising in the Review, the EMC, and the citizen, gained new customers, and have been paid $1 million to do nothing.
Another problem I have is the "reduced rates on satelite high speed" for customers who can't get wireless coverage. We signed up with Xplornet 2 years ago and are on their 1mbps package for $89.99 a month. We're anxious to see DSL here as their satellite service is horrible. We usually get 400kbps, not 1mbps. I looked into getting this new "discount" on high speed, but there was none. We get a deal on installation I believe, but we're still paying $89.99 a month for our package. How is this fair?
To anonymous (I hate it when people don't at least give their first name):
Several of your points require corrections, which is the only reason I posted your comment.
1. The City paid $750K, not $1M.
2. Xplornet has made good on -- and continues to work on -- delivering high-speed wireless access to many areas of rural Ottawa where it wasn't available before.
3. The satellite services offered by Xplornet in partnership with the City are deeply discounted.
4. If you signed up two years ago, why are you expecting a discount now? Do you expect the same from your local grocery store or department store when an item goes on sale two years after you originally bought it.
5. As I've stated several times on this blog, ISPs advertise peak (a.k.a. burst) rates, not sustained (a.k.a. average) rates. This is not unique to Xplornet; it is standard across the industry. Sustained rates are often in the 30-50% of peak.
6. The City's partnership with Xplornet has had an advantageous side effect -- it has spurred competition in many rural areas. For example, Bell Sympatico Unplugged and Rogers Portable Internet are now offered in more rural Ottawa neighbourhoods than previously. I've been tracking these services for over a year, and they seem to have accelerated their deployment over what I was originally told. As a result, many rural areas now have a choice of high-speed ISPs.
You may not see it or even agree, but things are much, much better than they were two years ago when you signed up for satellite.
-Chris
Chris,
Thought this might be of interest to your readers, it looks like Barrett Xplornet just bought Storm.
As an existing Storm customer (of which i have been extremely happy with), I received this e-mail this evening :
Storm Internet Services and Barrett Xplore Inc.(www.xplornet.com), through its Xplornet brand, are pleased to announce that Xplornet will now be the service provider for Storm's wireless Internet services customers. Barrett Xplore is Canada's largest and fastest growing wireless Internet Service Provider (ISP), with tens of thousands of subscribers across the country.
Xplornet offers both fixed wireless and satellite high-speed Internet services, enabling Xplornet to reach virtually every single Canadian.
We are confident that you will be pleased and impressed with Xplornet's service offering.
Some benefits of Xplornet are:
* 24/7/365 technical support
* Guaranteed rates: your rate will be protected for the duration of your contract
* No additional download volume fees
* All customers receive 2 Gig of storage with Xplornet email accounts
The process of moving each customer to Xplornet's service is expected to take a few months. Xplornet will contact each Storm customer individually starting in April 2008 to begin this transition process.
Customers will be grouped by area served and package type in order to coordinate the appropriate equipment changes/upgrades and to answer any questions you might have about Xplornet services. Rest assured that this is being done over a period of time to ensure that each customer is handled with the great concern and care that Xplornet prides themselves on providing.
Until the time that you are contacted by Xplornet and converted to their equipment and service packages, you will continue to contact Storm for all technical, billing, questions and problems. Storm will also be billing you during this period.
When you are contacted by Xplornet they will be happy to answer any questions that you have concerning this conversion.
Kindest Regards,
Barry Williams
President
Storm Internet Services
I think I would agree this one: High-speed or "broadband" Internet is not a utility that is provided by the City, but rather a communication service that is provided by independent private companies.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes, I agree it is a good piece of information to share and these are the good providers for the Internet in the United States. You can also visit cableinternetusa to ger the reasonable packages available for your location.
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