Rural residents frustrated with turtle-slow dial-up Internet service may have some new options by March 31.
That’s because Netco, a new joint venture between competing telecom giants Rogers and MTS, will flip the switch province-wide on a new service called HSPA+, which stands for High Speed Packet Access.
Months in the making, the tower-shar ing agreement between the two companies will allow owners of compatible mobile phones and wireless data devices to surf the Internet using the speedier 3.5 G wireless data protocol, which previously was only available in Canada in big cities.
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That means rural folks who haven’t already splurged on satellite or line-of-sight broadband connections will soon be able to find out for themselves just what all the fuss is about with YouTube, iTunes, and other data-heavy thingamajiggers out there on the World Wide Web that were just too darn slow to bother with before.
“It’s going to be providing customers with access to the Internet at much faster speeds than they’ve been experiencing to date,” said Laura Kwiatkowski, general manager for Rogers in Manitoba. “This will be a dramatic improvement.”
Although the two rival companies are joining forces and sharing towers, billing and rates will be operated separately, just like before.
Rogers, which uses the GSM/ GPRS wireless data system, and MTS, which uses CDMA, will both continue offering their old technology, so users won’t be required to update their phones.
FASTER DOWNLOADS
Farmers will benefit from faster downloads for staying up to date on commodity prices on their BlackBerrys and tablet computers in the tractor cab. As well, the faster data speeds will help with GPS-guidance applications that use the existing cellular network, she said.
Kelvin Shepherd, president of MTS, said that the new network will offer speeds up to seven times as fast as the company’s CDMA data service, or a “theoretical” speed of 21 megabytes per second.
DSL, or the basic home broadband Internet currently offered via cable modems in the big cities and for some lucky townsfolk, clocks in at anywhere from three to seven MBPS.
The new wireless Internet service, however, is not a “dedicated” link, and could vary depending on distance from the tower, obstructions such as hills or valleys, interference from sheet metal roofing, and the number of users with open connections to the tower.
“There’s a whole lot of other factors involved. But it’s certainly going to be quite fast, and a huge improvement over dial-up,” said Shepherd.
The biggest advantage, he added, is the fact that it is portable.
Those with BlackBerrys or iPhones could, if they wished, “tether” their devices to their laptops via Bluetooth or cables and use them to surf at the new higher speeds, whether at home or on the road. However, they will need to have a wireless billing plan that allows that, and be mindful that the extra data used comes at a cost, unless an “unlimited” plan is purchased.
GADGETS
Other Wi-Fi gadgets are available from both companies. Some can be plugged into a USB port on the computer, and others act as a wireless “node” allowing multiple devices to surf at the same time. So, in other words, no more fighting with the kids over who gets to use the Internet.
Access to the millions of video clips on the web may come in handy, because, amazingly enough, some of that stuff on the Internet is actually useful for farmers.
For example, a YouTube search of “diesel injectors” turns up 1,810 clips, one of which shows in detail how to remove an injection pump on a Ford F250. There are also clips of the latest in Swedish horse-logging gear. In short, there’s a mind-boggling array of interesting, educational stuff.
HSPA+ is touted as offering DSL-like speeds, which means that the clips should load and play in a reasonable amount of time.
Farmers shopping for new equipment, or a new bull, will also find that the experience is less of a chore with faster Internet, Kwiatkowski said.
Rural residents in areas near existing cellphone towers, even in areas farther north such as Swan River, The Pas, Eriksdale and Thompson will benefit from the new service.
But those who live in an area that, for whatever reason, doesn’t already have cellular service, or where the signal is too thin, will likely be out of luck.
So why has it taken so long, when countries like Cambodia, one of the poorest in the world, has had fast wireless data for a couple of years already?
Kwiatkowski said that many poor countries without widely distributed landline telephone systems have skipped that phase of telecom development and instead, have worked aggressively to put cheap wireless mobile phones in the hands of their citizens.
“Canada is not the easiest country to service. We have a very large geographic expanse of land and the population is fairly spread out,” she said. “In countries like Cambodia, the population is fairly concentrated so costs are lower.”
daniel. [email protected]
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“Thiswillbeadramaticimprovement.”
– LAURA KWIATKOWSKI
