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I-NetLink

The sky really is the limit

I-NetLink is leveling the Internet playing field for rural residents.

BY KERRY CAMPBELL

It was just over 120 years ago that the railway first came through southwestern Manitoba. As the track reached further and further westward, towns lived or died based on their proximity to the line, the final location of which was determined by local geography, chance, and, from time to time, the whim of a Canadian Pacific surveyor.

In the information age, a new frontier has opened up, new track is going down, and new connections are being made. And as with the railroad, where that track goes, and where its connections are made, will have a profound impact on the prosperity of our towns and villages.

President and CEO of I-NetLink, Charlie Clark

The World Wide Web has progressed enormously in the past 10 years that Internet access has been widely available — the number of Web pages is now roughly equal to the President and CEO of world population, with an astounding seven I-NetLink, Charlie Clark million unique pages added each day.

With that growth has come the need for better, faster access. Cable and DSL provide better access in the city, but in rural areas, high-speed Internet service tends to be either limited to non-existent. While this can be an inconvenience for casual surfers and emailers, it can be crippling for rural businesses, which are increasingly relying on online transactions and information sources in their day-to-day operations.

Fortunately for southwestern Manitoba, one Brandon-based business is determined to see that Westman residents aren't among those left in the Internet's dark age. I-NetLink offers wireless Internet service using an expanding network of radio towers centred on a main hub at its Brandon office.

The company has progressed from its first experimental tower in the fall of 2001 to a network of about 30 today, and thanks to a $2.5-million grant from Industry Canada, that network is scheduled to increase to a total of more than 60 towers by March of 2005.

Company founder, president and CEO Charlie Clark says that when he first considered offering wireless Internet service to southwestern Manitoba, he thought the technology might be of interest to only a handful of business customers.

"We started out by connecting only a few existing business clients on the outskirts of Brandon. Originally we thought we might be able to attract 20 to 50 customers," he recalls.

To date the company has signed up roughly 1,000 subscribers, and plans to double that number within the next 12 months.

Once I-NetLink had its wireless system up and running, the company discovered that this was the perfect way to deliver high-speed Internet to an area like Westman, with its patchwork of farms and small towns and its low population density.

Wireless, as the name suggests, enjoys the specific advantage of requiring no physical link to the household or the local transmission tower. More conventional providers that rely on a line link are reluctant to provide service to smaller towns (and can't service farms at all) because the low subscriber base won't allow them to recoup infrastructure costs.

Sandy Fisher, Construction Supervisor

Wireless costs are significantly lower than any other technology. "With wireless, you cover more area for less money," says Clark. "For an area like southwestern Manitoba, it really is the only way to go."

The technology is actually fairly simple, and at least in part, dates back as far as the local CPR main line. (Heinrich Hertz was proving the existence of radio waves back when the tracks were first laid.)

The network uses a system of radio towers to piggyback signals to and from a central fibre-optic Internet connection in Brandon. Each tower stands between 30 – 50 metres in height, covers a radius of about 16 kilometres, and is equipped with a 36-megabit transmitter.

I-NetLink says its service is comparable in speed with other high-speed providers. The only limitation of the system so far is that it operates on a line-of-sight basis, meaning service can't be provided if a customer doesn't have an unobstructed line-of-sight to the tower. The company says it's currently working on a solution to the problem.

I-NetLink had already put up 22 towers when Wheat Belt Community Futures advertised for tenders on a project it was hoping to receive federal funding for under Industry Canada's Broadband for Rural and Northern Development program (BRAND). BRAND was announced in September 2002 by former industry minister Allan Rock.

Mitch Muller, a development officer with Industry Canada, says the goal of the program is to make Canada the most Internet-connected country in the world by ensuring that every community has access to high-speed Internet.

"High-speed Internet is a basic infrastructure, like water, sewer, and electricity," he explains. "It's also an important component in community development in our remote communities."

"When we heard about the program, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity for us to work with our communities to bring them broadband," says Roger Guy, Wheat Belt's executive director.

Wheat Belt, together with Heartland Community Futures and Dakota Ojibway Community Futures, embarked on a letter-writing campaign to recruit potential partners among local towns, RMs and First Nations. The federal government was offering 50-cent dollars; each community would be required to invest 25 per cent of the cost of development themselves — an investment of about $15,000 — with the eventual service provider expected to kick in the remainder.

Communities were quick to respond. Of the 40 that were initially contacted, 34 said they wanted to be part of the program.

"I was really surprised at the importance the communities and the RMs placed on this project," says Guy, who was expecting a harder time getting municipalities to spend their limited tax dollars.

Mike Clark, I-NetLink's Manager, Research & Development

In the end it wasn't just the municipal governments who ended up responsible for providing their local 25 per cent stake in the operation: local businesses were quick to offer their own capital in order to make sure the project went ahead in their community.

Barb Bragg, project manager for the I-NetLink network rollout, says new businesses will be increasingly reluctant to locate in the area without access to high speed, while existing rural businesses recognize the fact that they risk being left behind.

"In terms of opportunities for rural Manitoba, that's sure a drawing card for anyone wanting to come in," she explains. "For people already here, it levels the playing field. If they want to play with the rest of the world, to take advantage of what the Internet can bring, then high-speed is the only way to go."

There were further incentives beyond the service itself offered to encourage municipalities to participate: each municipality will earn royalties off its local customers for at least the first five years of service. I-NetLink is doing its part to promote its communities by recruiting local resellers for its services, and offering major scholarships at local schools for technologies studies.

Some of the most enthusiastic partners in the program have been school divisions. Southwest Horizon School Division, for instance, hosts the service from its own network of towers in the Melita area.

Secretary-treasurer Brian Spurrill says the division had been using a satellite Internet link to maintain an Interactive Instructional Television network (IITV) between its schools. IITV allows teachers from one school in the division to interact with students at another school.

The satellite connection was costly, however, and couldn't provide the upload speed that the division needed to host its own web servers.

Barb Bragg, I-NetLink's Project Manager

Spurrill says the division jumped at the chance to switch to I-NetLink's wireless service. "The reality of it is that we're going to be doing more and more web-based applications over the coming years, whether it's instructional programs, administration, or managing our transportation network," he says. "We knew that high speed was going to be the future for us. Our problem was getting all our schools connected."

Divisions like Southwest Horizon highlight the diversity of applications, such as IITV and other video conferencing functions, that are feasible using high-speed technology. To put it one way: the `Net's not just for surfing anymore.

Soon, for I-NetLink customers, the `Net will be for talking. The company is looking forward to being the first to introduce voiceover IP technology — essentially converting your Internet account into a versatile, highly-mobile phone line.

"Voiceover IP is going to take over the telephone market," predicts Mike Clark, Charlie's son and I-NetLink's research and development guru. "Everyone (in the industry) is interested in it, and everyone is starting to do something about it."

One of the biggest advantages of voiceover IP phones is that they'll work anywhere you can find an Internet connection. For example, Mike is sending an I-NetLink VOIP phone with his brother-in-law who leaves this June for a teaching position in South Korea. That means his brother-in-law will still have a Brandon phone number and will be able to place and receive "local" calls back home, while overseas.

I-NetLink plans to begin offering retail phone service to their customers in the next month.

Beyond that, the company is concentrating on getting its towers up — at the rate of about one per week — and maintaining an edge in service over the competition. The company will end up competing with communications giant MTS in some of its broadcast areas.

"We'll compete based on our level of service," says Clark Sr., whose other high-tech service company, InfoMetrics, is helping to provide support for I-NetLink customers. "Our goal is to build a very successful, stable, and reliable service."

Clark believes that the company's grassroots approach to providing that service will make its network sustainable over the long haul. He points out that the company is receiving at least a call a week from towns and RMs that want to join the network.

"Our model is community-centred," he explains. "We're the provider of service, but it's the communities themselves who've taken the initiative to bring high-speed to their residents."

Clark says there's likely room to expand the network beyond the 60 planned towers, but he says eventually they'll reach a geographic limit to what they can sustain. At that point, his company will have something new to offer—expertise in the still-developing field of wireless Internet technology.

"We've been approached by other companies who recognize that we're a bit ahead of the game, have proven technology and know what we're doing. Once we've taken the time to perfect this network, we'll start looking to take the technology elsewhere."

In the meantime, Clark seems genuinely pleased to be honing the new technology by offering it in the area he calls home.

"When we first realized that people five miles outside of Brandon were forced to used dialup—it just wasn't right," he says. "To be able to go into these towns and provide this service—it's very rewarding to be able to level the playing field like this."

Kerry Campbell is a freelance writer and dedicated high-speed surfer based in Brandon.

I-NetLink est le fournisseur de service Internet pour le projet de services à large bande « Wheatbelt Community Futures Development » financé par Industrie Canada. Pour consulter la publication, visitez le site www.inthecitybrandon.com

Mise à jour: 2005-06-28

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