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For inspiration about remote links, see:

http://www.albertasupernet.ca/the+project/news/IEEE_Spectrum-SuperNet.pdf

I don't recall if that article in particular mentions bouncing radio off the sides of geological features to deliver broadband to certain remote POPs.

http://www.albertasupernet.ca/ Government Built/Sponsored fiber to many small municipalities (some with 100 people). Available for ISPs to provide service to end users wherever they want. I know people who have faster internet on their farm (30 miles from city), than I do in town! I'd say this is a good example of municipal internet done *fairly* well. Who knows, a similar program might even create some jobs and stimulate the economy here in the US.

http://albertasupernet.ca/

http://albertasupernet.ca/

Interesting. I live in a town of less than 300 people in Alberta. I have decent cell service, one power outage per year on average, and high speed internet through the SuperNet. 2.5 mbps down, 50 gigs a month.

Tech has helped people move here that work over the internet. They can bring their families to a much slower (arguably better) way of life with almost no regard for crime. There's no traffic, the air is clean, people are nice. Way different than the cities.

But this is Alberta, home of the $193,000,000 router. http://albertasupernet.ca/

Here's the link..
http://www.albertasupernet.ca/

There are about 10 companies doing this so there is competition. We just happen to have the best prices and the best service.

A couple of years ago, I was at a conference for Supernet technical people. As Supernet access is free to Education and Library sites, there were a lot of representatives from both groups.

The topic of content filters came up (brought up by the education people), and I was surprised when one of the library people said that in Alberta (and possibly all of Canada), it's illegal for public libraries to have content filters. The reason? Because the goal of a library is to give open access to information to the public. If a library implemented a content filter, that would be censorship.

I have to wonder why the USA feels so threatened by nipples that they feel the need to violate one of the core principals their country was founded on.

We had contractors (Bell, Axia) build the fibre network. They own the 27 largest cities. The gov't owns the rest and sells the bandwidth dirt cheap. This brings tons of us wireless guys into the game and we can give remote users high speed (1.5 meg + ) for 34.95 a month canadian.

This network cost our gov't 193 million. (ya, we got a smoking deal). We finally have it all running after four years and now the task of getting the smaller communities connected.

Wireless is not an issue now. We can shoot 25kms with current technology. It's pretty easy and fairly cost effective to cover small towns and rural areas. Considering that we have 422 communities with a Point of Presence, we hope to have high speed available to 95% of the province within a year.

It can be done. It can be cheaper. We used taxpayer money for the base and open competition to drive the prices down.

I love Alberta!

P.S. Alberta needs techs.

I have no doubt your numbers are correct, but at the same time can the 2/3 vs 3/4 difference in urbanization really account for the difference in penetration and pricing? I would argue not. While there has been a focus on greater communications infrastructure by government (just look at Alberta Supernet for a dramatic example. Services every community in the province with high-speed internet that has any of a school, a library, or a medical centre), IMO it definitely was the co-location and promotion of competition that made the REAL difference. Telus (as well as the other big incumbents in Canada) fought tooth and nail against co-location, but it NEEDED to happen, and it has succeeded (somewhat).

But this gets into a bigger discussion about government involvment in industry. Personally I think government's main role in the market should be to encourage competition, and BREAK UP monopolies, not encourage them. With almost-no exceptions, there are always better results from MORE competition, and MORE players in the market, rather than fewer. And when the "natural" market starts creating dominant giants, either introduce factors to break their monopoly with new initiatives (mandating co-location would be one example of such), or break the companies up (more extreme, and necessary only when the previous option fails). But above all they should be ENSURING that meaningful competition always occurs.

Governments have an essential role in economies completely seperate from government spending and federally (or provincial/state) run companies. More competition is almost always good, and should be the government's PRIMARY responsability (aside from money flow), not encouraging monopolies.

Check your Dates - the G&M article was from February. And they missed the finish dates

Under the completion and commissioning plan, all the rural communities in the Extended Area
Network will be connected by April 30, 2005 which will enable local service providers to buy
bandwidth on the Alberta SuperNet and offer high-speed commercial services including Internet
access, to rural retail customers. Additionally, the vast majority of the government, health,
library and education facilities in the Base Area Network and Extended Area Network will be
connected by June 30, 2005 with the total network being completed by September 30, 2005.

Which as an aside was actually completed on Sept 1 - ahead of schedule.

Details at http://www.albertasupernet.ca/

God dag, hallå

Here's how. Incorporate yourself. Register with the best local temp agency. You can find out which agencies you should choose to represent you by researching who services the local companies you're most interested in working for. By sticking to six-month contracts, you'll usually end up with a month or two of slack time. This will allow for extended vacations or short-term skill developments via the local technical college.

Link to one list of Canadian Temp Agencies.
http://www.nextsteps.org/jobs/tema.htm

The best part is that as a consultant, I'm more autonomous, better compensated and generally more respected.

As well, why Ontario? Alberta is booming and is rapidly becoming one of the most wired places on the planet.
http://www.albertasupernet.ca/benefits/default.htm

has had a network like this in the works for a couple of years now. It is supposed to be finished within the next year I think.