That was one of the main takeaways from a recent poll commissioned by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

The poll, conducted by Probe Research, found that rural Manitobans are overwhelmingly concerned about mobile connectivity outside of the province’s cities.

Why it matters: Unreliable cellular service can be a safety concern that disproportionately affects farmers in remote areas.

Only a third of rural and northern Manitobans said their cell service is completely reliable in an emergency. Just under half indicated coverage is somewhat reliable, and one in five stated their service wasn’t reliable at all.

“Reliable cell network coverage is not just about making phone calls. It’s about safety,” said AMM president Kam Blight, noting poll results speak to the larger issue of rural connectivity, including broadband service.

“That has become critical infrastructure for work, for school, for running a business, for farming,” he said. “We need to get this right.”

Rural connectivity has been on the agenda of the Keystone Agricultural Producers since 2008. That year, the organization first passed a resolution committing to lobby for enhanced cell and high-speed internet. KAP president Jill Verwey said the organization continues to advocate on those services.

“Both are very important for farming operations,” she said.

Back in 2020, when Verwey was vice-president of the organization, KAP conducted a survey that closely mirrored the findings of the AMM poll. That survey found almost two-thirds of respondents were dissatisfied with their mobile phone and internet coverage.

“Farm operations require strong internet and cell coverage to conduct business and ensure that food continues to make its way to market,” said Verwey. “We have heard deep-seated frustration from both farm families and non-farmers about the state of connectivity in rural Manitoba, and providers cannot continue to ask us to pay for a service that is subpar, at best.”

The issue also burst into the spotlight in summer 2018 following a grain elevator fire in the southern Manitoba community of Crystal City and a tornado in the northwestern community of Alonsa.

Following the twister, Alonsa residents complained that they did not get the expected weather alerts on their phones, and community officials noted local government and community services could not spread warnings due to lack of cell service.

The fire caused similar complaints. Farmers trying to organize water hauling or contact friends or family said they could not connect, text messages didn’t go through and, unlike first responders, they did not have radios.

Election 2023

Under their Let’s Grow Manitoba Together pre-election campaign, the AMM has put the spotlight on issues like rural connectivity, hoping to turn them into election issues.

The campaign included a debate in April that invited all provincial party leaders. Rural connectivity was raised by Manitoba Liberal leader Dougald Lamont during a broader discussion on infrastructure.

“We’ve all experienced bad cell service. And that’s another thing that needs to be a huge priority,” he said. “Cell service is not a luxury. It’s absolutely essential because there are farmers and others who need to contact emergency services who can’t even get a cell signal.”

The province declined to comment on the AMM poll, saying cellular service falls under federal jurisdiction.

In May, James Teitsma, Manitoba minister of consumer protection and government services, said reliable connectivity is “critically important for the safety, well-being and economic success of all Manitobans.”

He was speaking about a contract dispute between internet company Xplore and Manitoba Hydro, which had paused a project to convert surplus Manitoba Hydro fibre-optic cable to an expanded broadband network in remote areas of the province.

“We are taking action to close the telecommunications gap for rural, northern and Indigenous communities, and this work is underway,” Teitsma said.

But he also said the responsibility doesn’t fall only to the provincial government.

“There is a role for the private sector as well as government, including the federal government’s commitment to connecting 98 per cent of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026,” he said.

The AMM poll, which included questions about funding for municipalities and public safety, was conducted in the first two weeks of June. It reached 1,000 Manitobans, 60 per cent in Winnipeg and 40 per cent outside the perimeter. The survey results are considered to have a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

“It’s an election year. We thought we’d check our provincial priorities against public sentiment,” Blight said. “It turns out the issues we’ve been pressing are through the roof in the public’s mind.”

The post AMM puts rural cell service in the hot seat appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

It’s an idea that Scherman says arose from the same philosophy as the ScherGain Solutions System he previously co-founded with his father. That system involves the use of a drop pan to better gauge how many bushels per acre are lost behind the combine.

Combinesettings.com is a web-based platform and app in which farmers create a profile, add their combine and settings to their profile and then receive and provide feedback with farmers across the world.

“Peer-to-peer isn’t a new thing, but it’s now the old thing that’s now on the internet,” Scherman said.

“You have your own combine settings, so when you log in, you post that you have a John Deere 9660 or whatever,” said Madden. “Here’s all my settings, my concave, fan speed, et cetera. Then people can comment on it, say, ‘Oh, have you tried this concave? Have you done this?'”

Described as a Reddit-type web forum, the site allows comments and questions under certain topics, and uses an up- or down-voting system to show which advice has merit.

The website launched earlier in July, with the app released Wednesday. Madden and Sherman said the traffic coming through their booth at Ag in Motion has been a welcome surprise.

“It’s been live for a while, and we’ve been slowly launching it to some farmers that we know asking for feedback,” said Madden.

“I felt bad for the development team. We were chatting with people and they’ll say, ‘Does it do this?’ and we’re like, ‘Yep,’ then go to the trailer and email the guys that we need to do this.”

AG IN MOTION VIDEO: Ag innovation winners unveiled

On Tuesday, the product won the Ag in Motion Innovations Award for Business Solutions at this year’s event, which came as a surprise to Scherman and Madden.

“We didn’t expect it at all,” said Scherman. “We applied for it, went to it and was like, ‘What, we just won?'”

Winning the award certainly helped the brand garner some recognition, as it does for most innovations award winners.

“We had a lot of people stop by and they said, ‘oh, I saw a bunch of social media about it afterwards,’ or ‘I saw you guys won this award.’ So, it was a good little kick-start for us,” said Scherman.

“People have been really excited about it.”

Farmers weren’t the only interested parties to visit the booth — retailers and corporations across the combine industry came by as well.

“We’ve had companies that have come to us, after-market companies for combine products, say, ‘I want all my customers on your site,’ ” said Scherman.

“Some of those people have 200, 500 customers. We said on Tuesday we’re going to gather our thoughts and have a call because a lot has happened in the past few days.”

With the website only being up for a short time, they are hoping to take the feedback they’ve received, implement it in their site and take it to ag shows across the world to grab the global market while they can and find new ways to keep expanding and improving.

“It’s really professional, we’ve put a lot of money into development and that’s not slowing down anytime soon,” said Madden. “We’re making it global as quick as we can.”

The two are planning on attending trade shows in Australia, Germany, Ukraine and elsewhere in the next couple of years.

The post At Ag in Motion: Combine settings app makes the world your neighbour appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The urgency driving such transactions may cause ranchers, farmers and farm workers to make purchases “without taking time to properly verify or research production sources,” Alberta RCMP’s financial crimes team said in a release Thursday.

So far this year across Alberta’s Mountie-policed jurisdictions, various actors have scammed victims out of about $64,000, RCMP said, and “with many cases potentially not being reported, this figure could be higher.”

Recently, the Mounties said, fraudsters have been setting up listings for hay on social media and buy-and-sell platforms — and are “requesting immediate payment before buyers have the opportunity to research the producer, see the product, or receive delivery.”

Evansburg and Grande Prairie RCMP this summer each received similar reports of transactions on the Facebook Marketplace platform, in which “a quantity of money” was sent via e-transfer but no hay was delivered and the funds were lost.

In reported cases, lost individual deposits ranged from a minimum of $1,000 to over $5,000.

RCMP in Saskatchewan issued a warning earlier this summer about similar scams, in which several farmers sent funds in advance for hay that never materialized.

It’s worth noting, RCMP said Thursday, that the potential buyers who were able to avoid being scammed are those who “refused to give deposits in advance, insisted upon speaking on the phone, and had paid cash upon delivery of goods.”

Among the “key indicators” of a potential hay scam on an online platform, RCMP said:

• sellers will typically only communicate through text messaging and avoid phone conversations;
• while sellers can be located anywhere in the world, they get the attention of buyers by showing a specific or specialized knowledge of hay products;
• the stated price will be “attractively low” and “consistent with the previous year’s market price;” and
• the seller will often insist on a deposit of about 50 per cent, but once that deposit is received, excuses about delayed delivery may follow, “and then communication stops.”

On a more positive note, the need for hay in drought-damaged regions of the West also led to the launch this summer of several initiatives to ship donated hay from Eastern Canada.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s Hay West 2021 program on Tuesday picked up a $25,000 contribution from Farm Credit Canada to help cover shipping costs for westbound feed. FCC also said it will put up another $25,000 in matching funds if the CFA is able to secure another $25,000 contribution.

Information about Hay West 2021 for farmers looking to supply or purchase hay is available online. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Hay-starved Prairies fertile ground for online scammers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

What we need is a new internet. The old one is broken.

Today’s internet originated from the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) in the late 1960s — a conglomerate of research institutions connecting military, political and industrial actors during the Cold War in the United States. It allowed for secure communications in case of conflict, and to facilitate research and development through electronic sharing of information. It was a closed, tightly controlled, highly secure, invitation-only network.

The invention of the world wide web (WWW) by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 led to the browser-based internet that we know today. The WWW introduced and advocated for an open, inclusive, universal and unconstrained mode for networks to communicate with each other. It introduced the notion of hyperlinks that a user could simply click on and be transported to a new web page on a separate network. This was the start of the unregulated, user-driven, content-rich internet.

The paradox of the internet is that it was born, has grown and exists in an environment where control and access have been in constant tension and conflict.

Cybercrime is a growing, highly successful and profitable industry. It is estimated by industry that cybercrime costs will grow by 15 per cent per year to reach US$10.5 trillion by 2025: the third greatest “economy” in the world, after those of the U.S. States and China.

A big part of this is ransomware, multi-pronged attacks capturing an organization’s data and systems. Ransomware attacks have increased by nearly 500 per cent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The average ransom payment has also continued to climb, up 43 per cent from the last quarter of 2020 to an average of over US$200,000. What is especially insidious about these attacks is that a ransom demand is often accompanied by a breach and extraction of company data, and a concurrent extortion threatening to release this data unless additional payments are made.

In the first quarter of 2021, over three-quarters of ransomware attacks were tied to such a threat.

Criminals have also evolved to become increasingly systematic. The recent attack on Colonial Pipelines by the hacker collective DarkSide exemplifies this. Like their state-sponsored counterparts, criminal collectives have created virtual organizations and enacted focus strategies targeting specific sectors and companies. They have infinite resources, skills and patience. They are playing a long game where targets are identified, carefully reconnoitred and only acted upon when the maximum value can be extracted.

CNA Financial was attacked in late March, and paid a ransom of US$40 million — one of the biggest payments on record. The hackers were apparently interested in obtaining access to CNA’s client database not only to blackmail the company itself, but to identify clients that had purchased cyberinsurance with a ransomware payment rider to identify the most lucrative targets. DarkSide is also selling ransomware packs to other hackers — Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) is becoming a growing profit centre.

Legislators have, predictably, responded to these attacks. U.S. President Joe Biden has directed federal agencies to bring all of their resources to bear on dealing with digital disruptions. The Department of Homeland Security is developing a set of mandatory rules for how pipelines, and likely other infrastructure providers, will need to safeguard their assets.

While a good first step, it will not be enough, and we will continue to react, to be behind the attack curve.

Intranets — closed, proprietary networks — might hold the key to solving this threat.

We foresee a new internet emerging, with two distinct sides. On one side, we’ll have the wholly unfiltered, minimally regulated, Wild West internet that anyone can access.

On the other side, we might see the evolution of what could be called the “World Wide Intranet,” that is, widely accessible but tightly controlled websites with stringent access controls to prevent criminal activity, much like the closed corporate intranets that gained popularity two decades ago.

Large online merchants like Amazon, the government, health-care providers or other large organizations will no longer tolerate criminal assaults on their and their stakeholders’ data and resources. As such, as security measures like multi-factor authentification evolve, they will increasingly be adopted by these organizations and passed onto consumers as a condition of access.

As a society, we accept controls when the cost of not having them becomes greater than the restrictions they impose. We see this trend as an inevitable consequence of the growing security threats affecting not only networks but the individuals that transact with them.

By 2025, the world will store 200 Zettabytes (one trillion gigabytes) of data. The accompanying growth in transactions leaves us no other choice but to tighten identity and access controls.

One pathway might divide the web into one open, but inherently risky, internet and one closed, controlled, regulated and inherently untrusting one where security and privacy dominate.

The post Comment: JBS ransomware attack highlights need for new internet appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“It’s easy to stay siloed,” said Myreille Fortin, the organization’s social innovation co-ordinator. The hub is a place to discuss different experiences and learn from others, she added.

Food Matters Manitoba is a food advocacy, resource and research organization. It launched its Food Action Hub online platform in mid-June.

The hub acts similarly to a social media site in that members can post, friend each other and join groups to co-ordinate and discuss. Users can also access resources and blog posts. Paid subscribers (the basic iteration is free) can host groups and courses on the site.

Food Matters Manitoba began developing the site in 2019, based on feedback from food-focused community groups. Group members said they wanted to meet more people and hear more perspectives but they don’t have time.

Organizations are also spread across rural and northern Manitoba and have, in the past, struggled to participate in events.

When the Co-operator spoke to Fortin and Kate Anderson, the organization’s development co-ordinator, on June 22 about 90 people had signed up to use the hub.

The main user group comprises people who do direct, in-community food programming, said Anderson. However, she said public health dieticians were also interested to use the hub to connect with groups. Educators, academics and people in agriculture, both at a local and corporate level, have also expressed interest, said Anderson.

As development began on the site, the pandemic pushed many events online. Anderson said that while this reinforced the need for online platforms for connection, it also highlighted the need for “us as people taking the time to reach out to partners individually.”

“Eventually they’ll meet and they’ll get to collaborate,” said Fortin. “That connection piece is what we really want to focus on before we think about bigger things.”

The post ‘Food Action Hub’ platforms collaboration appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday launched a three-year, $10 billion infrastructure plan aimed at five different sectors, including agriculture. The $1.5 billion is expected to result in 700,000 acres of irrigated land.

Federal Liberals said the investment, to be funnelled through the Canada Infrastructure Bank, will create 60,000 jobs.

The $1.5 billion for agriculture is to target major irrigation projects, and the “lion’s share” of that will go to the Prairies and the West, Bibeau said, a region where she sees “opportunities for investment in this sector.”

The bank, she said, “has already started significant discussions with the provinces, the municipalities, the private sector to see how we could move forward.”

Bibeau didn’t mention specific projects, but Saskatchewan’s $4 billion, 10-year Lake Diefenbaker irrigation project is a top candidate to receive federal support.

The province in early July announced plans for a project expected to allow farmers to irrigate 500,000 acres.

Western Economic Diversification Canada, a federal department, last month recommended Ottawa help fund the Diefenbaker irrigation project, contending the completed project would add $85 billion to Canada’s GDP and $20 billion in tax returns back to government.

While targeted to the agriculture sector, the project is also expected to be beneficial for the potash industry.

Adding to the likelihood of federal support is the role former Liberal cabinet minister and Saskatchewan MP Ralph Goodale continues to play within party circles. A long-time advocate for the project, Goodale remains a highly respected voice in the party.

Scott Moe, currently running to continue serving as Saskatchewan’s premier, said he was given a heads-up on the announcement.

“I hope this is positive news. There is some money earmarked for the irrigation project, irrigation projects,” he told reporters in Regina. “We have a significant irrigation investment that will be coming here in the province of Saskatchewan.

“We will be looking at the details of this very soon,” he said, adding he hopes it is an investment rather than a loan through the infrastructure bank.

Ottawa’s announcement also contained a $2 billion commitment to expanding high-speed broadband access. In its Sept. 23 throne speech, the government said it wanted to improve internet access in rural and remote communities.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture said in a release Thursday it’s “encouraged” by the infrastructure funding announcement, noting rural broadband has been a long-standing issue for farmers and rural communities.

“With the arrival of COVID-19, many services pivoted to become entirely online, highlighting the fact farmers’ lack of high-speed connectivity puts us at a significant business disadvantage,” CFA president Mary Robinson said in a statement.

“Rural broadband is not only necessary for today’s farmers to conduct business and take advantage of cutting-edge technology, it is also critical to attracting new, young farmers into the industry. We know younger generations see high-speed connectivity as essential to everyday living and business.”

The infrastructure bank will be rolling out these investments over the next 24-36 months, Robinson said, and the CFA “anticipates these investments will help accelerate the government’s promised timeline of connecting all of Canada by 2030.”

As for the irrigation funding, she said, “these types of investments will have positive impacts for years to come, helping mitigate the impacts of erratic weather events.”

Increased irrigation, she said, can help farmers grow higher-value crops and more crops per acre, while also making water usage more efficient.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

The post Federal irrigation pledge seen flowing mainly to Prairies appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In an ambitious throne speech delivered Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s party committed itself to implementing universal child care and extending or enhancing many of the economic measures put in place to curb the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But it’s a commitment to enhancing rural broadband that farmers will likely find most intriguing.

“In the last six months, many more people have worked from home, done classes from the kitchen table, shopped online, and accessed government services remotely. So it has become more important than ever that all Canadians have access to the internet,” read the throne speech, delivered by Gov. Gen. Julie Payette.

“The government will accelerate the connectivity timelines and ambitions of the Universal Broadband Fund to ensure that all Canadians, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet.”

The Universal Broadband Fund was launched in 2019 and, according to the government, is meant to “support projects to build or upgrade access and transport infrastructure to provide fixed and mobile wireless broadband Internet access services in eligible underserved areas of Canada.”

Efforts to expand access to health care were also highlighted in the speech.

“The Government will ensure that everyone – including in rural and remote areas – has access to a family doctor or primary care team. COVID-19 has also shown that our system needs to be more flexible and able to reach people at home. The government will continue to expand capacity to deliver virtual health care,” read the text of the speech.

Canada’s government also plans to legislate the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 as part of its effort to combat climate change.

The speech specifically mentioned the need for the “know-how of the energy sector” to be involved in such an effort.

Two key priorities were listed: supporting existing manufacturing and natural resource sectors “transform to meet a net zero future, creating good-paying and long-lasting jobs” as well as “recognize farmers, foresters, and ranchers as key partners in the fight against climate change, supporting their efforts to reduce emissions and build resilience.”

Trudeau’s government also plans to create a new way of managing Canadian waters. Citing the closure of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA), the speech commits the federal government to create a “Canada Water Agency to keep our water safe, clean and well-managed.”

“The government will also need to identify opportunities to build more resilient water and irrigation infrastructure,” Payette said.

The speech said Canada will also continue to fight for free trade and reform at the World Trade Organization.

“COVID-19 has accelerated the existing trends toward a more fragmented global order. It remains in Canada’s interest to create and maintain bilateral and multilateral relationships to advance peace and economic prosperity.”

Details of the legislative plans highlighted in the speech are expected to emerge in the coming days and weeks.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

The post Throne speech commits to rural broadband improvement appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Farmers will be well familiar with the frustrations of long-distance service, from the challenge of describing or diagnosing problems over the phone, to the trials of navigating number-option phone systems and automated messages.

The result, Saik argues, is often a “lacklustre experience,” and it’s something that he hopes his company’s Tech Direct platform can change.

Launched earlier this summer, Tech Direct promises to connect farmers for free with experts from a range of agribusinesses signed on with the service.

“The reason that we believe this is important is because, for one thing, a lot of the technical support people in companies are at home right now and they’re not on the road and not driving and many farmers don’t want them to drive into their yards,” Saik said, pointing to the ongoing issues with COVID-19.

Why it matters: More farmers are getting service remotely thanks to COVID-19, but AGvisorPRO says Tech Direct can take some of the inherent frustration out of the process.

Measures to curb the spread of the pandemic have created an “excess capacity” of experts, often company technicians or technical sales representatives, available for help, Saik said.

“What we do with Tech Direct is we register the company’s name and we register the company’s proprietary products and services and we register the company’s representatives,” he said.

Producers using the AGvisorPRO app can then search for the expert best able to help solve their specific issue.

Once connected, producers can interact with that expert through either audio or video. Sessions are set up to share technical information and high-resolution photos and are also recorded for later reference, if needed.

“As a farmer, I can go back next year and I can say, ‘What did he say last year about the timing for boron on canola?’ and all of that stuff is saved in the user’s account,” Saik said.

Visual elements of the service, such as video, are meant to ease some of the issues compared to audio alone.

Descriptions such as the, “blue ball valve on the north side of the sprayer,” are of limited use to technicians, Saik argued, compared to the ability to simply share visuals for diagnosis and service.

“We believe that this will not only support farmers, but we also believe this will support ag retail, because ag retail can have instantaneous conversations,” he said.

Similar benefits could apply to veterinary services, he noted. Earlier this year, local vets reported limiting farm visits due to COVID-19.

Flipping costs

The platform expands the prior AGvisorPRO service, launched last year as a “minimal viable product.”

“Farmers would pay,” Saik said. “They’d download the app for free and then they would be able to connect with experts and they would pay for that expertise. That’s only fair when you’re dealing with somebody who makes their living by basically offering their expertise.”

The business model for Tech Direct, however, flips that system on its head. Farmers no longer pay for their connection. Instead, Saik says, AGvisorPRO will make its money from agribusiness partners. Businesses pay an annual subscription, plus connection fee, to access customers using the platform.

The benefit, Saik says, is ultimate cost savings for the subscribing company.

“We save the company money by keeping the rep at home,” while still having that rep answer questions as if they were on site, he said.

Eleven businesses have signed on with Tech Direct so far, ranging from equipment firms AGI, Flaman and Pattison Liquid Systems, to agronomy or precision ag consultants like Point Forward Solutions, Sure Growth Solutions and Taurus Agricultural Marketing, to ATP Nutrition and Brandon’s Aberhart Ag Solutions. Realty firms like Hammond Realty, risk manage firm Global Ag Risk Solutions and financial firm 33seven round out the list.

Ag in Motion

The Tech Direct launch was enough to take honours from this year’s Ag in Motion (AIM) virtual farm show. AGvisorPRO, which launched its basic services during AIM last year, earned the farm show’s 2020 AIM Innovation Award for agribusiness services earlier this summer.

“To have AGvisorPRO come in with, I think, a new way to communicate with experts in the field — I think that’s pretty cool,” show director Rob O’Connor said at the time.

“The discussion at the committee level was, ‘How much further will this go?’” he added. “This probably opens up some new doors.”

The sheer size of Western Canada could easily translate to hours of distance between an expert and the farmer who needs to talk to them, O’Connor noted, while the Tech Direct has the possibility of instantaneous communication.

Connectivity

Lack of rural connectivity does provide some challenge to the technology.

“I’ll always bring this up,” Saik said. “You can’t have a smart farm with a stupid internet connection.”

Tech Direct was designed with “thin architecture” in order to make the most of sometimes scarce bandwidth, Saik noted. For example, he said, a video call will drop down to audio only if the connection lags.

“With all that being said, as we build out more robust functionality into the future, we’d like to have better coverage, and that’s an issue. That’s an issue for agriculture. Everybody is suffering from the same thing,” he said.

O’Connor also acknowledged the problem, although he expects the situation to improve.

“As these innovations come down the pipe, I think we’re going to see those data providers also improve those systems too,” he said.

A survey by Keystone Agricultural Producers this spring found that almost two-thirds of rural respondents were somewhat to very dissatisfied with their cellular and internet service.

The post Face to face from the comfort of home appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Last month, the space exploration company owned by Elon Musk (of PayPal and Tesla fame applied for several Basic International Telecommunications Service licences — the first step toward providing Starlink satellite internet in Canada. This service will target areas where “access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable,” the company said on its website.

With a pair of successful launches last month, SpaceX has more than 500 of its small satellites (each about the size of a table) circulating a few hundred miles above the Earth’s surface. Musk’s company has said it needs 800 of them to provide “moderate” internet service — meaning only a few more launches are needed as SpaceX deploys about 60 satellites at a time. (It has received approval in the U.S. to launch more than 12,000 of them.)

But telecom experts aren’t holding their breath just yet.

“There are a lot of questions on whether this is a project that may be beyond Elon Musk’s ability to actually pull off,” said telecommunications consultant Mark Goldberg.

“It’s unclear that they’re going to have the financing to complete the project, and even if they do complete the project, it’s not clear that it’s going to provide the kind of service that people want or at a price that people are happy with.

“If it’s a solution, it’s going to be a long way off. We’re talking years away.”

On its face, Starlink satellite internet service should solve the myriad problems rural Canadians have with their internet connection.

SpaceX uses low Earth orbit satellites that are closer to the planet’s surface than other satellite internet providers, and that decreased distance improves communication times. Using a constellation of these low-orbit satellites, Starlink will cover the entire Earth’s surface and provide high-speed service any time, anywhere — assuming there are enough satellites.

“They need thousands more satellites to be launched. That costs billions of dollars,” said Goldberg.

Raising such a huge amount of cash isn’t easy, added Imran Mohiuddin, policy analyst at Cybera, a Calgary-based non-profit dedicated to Alberta’s cyber-infrastructure.

“Right now, there’s a need for a lot of investment,” he said.

“The capital investment it takes to do this kind of thing is very, very high right now, especially in the launch stage. I think that’s the main barrier to actually getting it done.”

Regulatory and financial hurdles

In Canada, there’s a “messy history” of companies that have explored low Earth orbit satellite internet service and failed, said Mohiuddin. OneWeb — one of the largest companies working in this field in Canada — filed for bankruptcy at the end of March because of a lack of funding.

“The problems with it aren’t technical — they’re financial and regulatory right now,” he said. “The regulatory scheme has not been fully fleshed out yet for low Earth orbit, so there’s still a lot of regulatory uncertainty and a lot of funding uncertainty.”

Telesat, another key player, plans to be operational with its constellation by 2022, he said, adding that Telesat has received $85 million in federal funding through the Strategic Innovation Fund to accomplish that.

“This type of internet is somewhat of a unique thing,” Mohiuddin said. “The companies are tied to specific countries, but the satellites are in space. It blurs the idea of which regulatory scheme they’re in and which jurisdiction is funding which company.

“SpaceX is coming into Canada, competing with Telesat, that is receiving money from the Canadian government. So there’s a complicated jurisdictional issue going on here.”

Even so, Mohiuddin thinks that low Earth orbit satellite internet is “very promising,” given the challenges rural Canadians currently have with their service.

“Broadband issues in Canada have been going on for a really long time,” he said.

“We have problems with connectivity, affordability, and access, so I think it’s always positive when a new competitor joins the space, especially if they’re planning to deploy in rural and northern areas where the least competition is.”

Other options

So far, other approaches to the problem “haven’t panned out to their full potential,” he added.

Alberta’s SuperNet is just one example of that. When it was first launched, the SuperNet was meant to be a publicly funded fibre ‘backbone’ that would allow internet service providers to focus on the ‘last mile’ — the final link in the telecommunications chain that actually delivers service to end-users.

With open-access fibre links like the SuperNet, the cost of providing last-mile coverage is supposed to be reduced enough that service providers will cover it, providing reliable internet no matter where you live.

“That hasn’t really happened,” said Mohiuddin, citing a lack of leadership, funding, and regulatory structures.

So while services like Starlink satellite internet could resolve some of these challenges once it’s fully operational, there are other solutions closer to home, including maximizing this existing infrastructure through better regulations, he said.

“Low Earth orbit isn’t the only way to get to rural connectivity. Some of it can be done at a more regulatory level, with some targeted funding,” said Mohiuddin.

“For a rural community in the middle of Alberta, I believe there are solutions there to get connectivity without having to wait for a low Earth orbit constellation to be deployed in three to five years.

“While there’s reason to be optimistic and it should be championed, there’s still quite a long way to go.”

Goldberg agrees.

“What people want is a high-speed connection, and a high-speed connection can be provided by a whole bunch of different technologies, like fixed wireless,” he said.

“People in rural Canada shouldn’t place all their hopes on SpaceX. There are other solutions.”

This article was originally published at the Alberta Farmer Express.

The post Out-of-this-world rural internet speeds still a long way off appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph hosted a virtual panel in May to discuss COVID-19’s social impacts, in which researchers from a variety of fields reviewed both the negative and positive takeaways so far.

Jacqui Empson Laporte works with rural communities in her role with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and also volunteers with Victim Services in Huron County, Ont. where she lives.

“In both roles, I’m seeing the stress in farmers and their families, caused by disruptions by the supply chains or even the threat of supply chain disruptions,” she said, noting market uncertainty as small businesses in small towns are trying to adapt to new consumer needs.

Victim Services in her community is small and largely volunteer-driven — and under pressure from the pandemic.

“When our volunteer base is undergoing stress at the scale COVID is pushing on our communities, it really starts to destabilize our establishments,” she said.

It increases the burden on staff, she said, and requires narrowing the scope of calls to which they respond to primarily fatalities and violence, because those incidents are likely to cause the biggest ripples in a community.

“It’s really hard to reach out for help when your stuck in your home in the same conditions that are causing the crisis, so if there is a challenge of addiction or domestic violence or mental health, people are not only isolated by distance in rural Ontario but isolated because of the travel restrictions.”

More tele-counselling opportunities are needed and could help rural communities, she said, but those opportunities are only available where there’s reliable internet service.

Helen Hambly Odame, an associate professor at the University of Guelph who focuses her research on connectivity of rural areas, said the pandemic shows “how essential broadband has become for every single Canadian, urban and rural.”

A “digital divide” that has made it difficult for some rural communities to adapt to changes resulting from the pandemic, she said, as those lacking connectivity are experiencing more isolation from society and the economy.

“We can see how essential connectivity is,” she said, adding later the internet is a current challenge but also a source of great opportunity in the future. “Let’s look at the future as one of opportunity through connectivity.”

She is also hopeful some workplaces recognize employees can successfully work from home and that “some of those workers choose to work from home in rural Ontario.” That, in turn, could become an economic driver for rural communities, she said.

Ryan Gibson, a University of Guelph associate professor who focuses on rural planning and development, told the panel the ability of people in rural communities to volunteer their time has been compromised because of COVID-19.

Many non-profits have had to rethink how they deliver services, he added.

Volunteerism has been “a really key feature” and part of the fabric of rural communities, he said, and while there are typically ebbs and flows, those communities right now ” are challenged in how they respond during the COVID-19 crisis.”

He singled out support for newcomers in rural communities.

“This pandemic has caused a disruption in terms of the supports for the newcomers, it’s challenged the ability to tap into that social fabric, to be able to participate and volunteer, to have your kids take part in extracurricular activities,” he said.

Abdul-Rahim Abdulai, a PhD student at the University of Guelph, echoed that sentiment.

“Most newcomers, like myself, can find a community in a community,” he said, adding it’s difficult to settle in without that support network. “Just moving into a new area by yourself can be very challenging, of course.”

Post-pandemic, “we need to start thinking why our responses to COVID-19 need to look different in different places,” Gibson said, because urban strategies may not be the best response for rural areas.

“One of the really important things we have to think about as we move forward is how to build place-based strategies, how do we build on the assets that are currently in our communities, within the people who live there, and how can we use those assets to meet our local priorities.”

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

The post Pandemic may strain rural community resources, panel warns appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.