Government of Canada investment to enhance broadband services across Northern Ontario
Blue Sky Net Executive Director Susan Church and MP Jay Aspin
NORTH BAY, Ontario, May 22, 2012 — On behalf of the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister for FedNor, Jay Aspin, Member of Parliament for Nipissing–Timiskaming, today announced a Government of Canada investment of $125,000 to enhance broadband services across Northern Ontario.
No Internet, no thanks, cottage buyers say
Rustic, off the grid summer cottages don’t have the romantic appeal they used to, as buyers increasingly demand more features, cottage experts say.
“For many of us a cottage was a place our grandparents owned in a structure primarily made of wood that the family opened on May 24 weekend and closed Thanksgiving,” said Cameron Mitchell, a Collingwood-based mortgage specialist at a panel hosted by the Bank of Montreal on Thursday. “Families are today buying recreational properties that are for the most part utilized for all four seasons.”
Full story appearing in the Toronto Star's "Moneyville" by Tony Wong
Multiple towers to bring high-speed, economic growth
ALMAGUIN – Bringing high-speed Internet at urban prices is the mandate of a not-for-profit development company, which plans to build 48 towers for the Nipissing and Parry Sound/Muskoka Districts.
According to Susan Church, general manager of Blue Sky Network, Broadband Canada conducted a nationwide survey in 2008 determining which areas were still without coverage.
High-speed Internet is needed for economic growth, says Church, and the people who live in these areas year-round are disadvantaged without broadband.
Click here for the full story in the June 23 issue of the Almaguin News. Story by Mary Beth Hartill
Council gives go-ahead for internet tower
KATRINE – Whether or not a 300-foot tower will be erected over Doe Lake in Katrine is now up to Industry Canada.
The controversial piece of the project that will bring affordable high-speed Internet to a large swath of Armour, Perry, Ryerson and McMurrich/Monteith townships garnered unanimous approval from Armour Township council at its regular meeting of June 14 that devoted more than an hour to the subject.
Click here for the full story in the June 23 issue of the Almaguin News. Story by Rob Learn
Installation to provide big swath of broadband
Almaguin News - Rob Learn - May 26, 2011 - 11:16 AM
BURK’S FALLS – The end of the meeting hosted by Armour council was a stark contrast to the beginning in which Blue Sky Net II project manager Wayne Lynch outlined why the tower is necessary, the coverage it would achieve and how it would link other sites in Armour, Perry, Strong and McMurrich/Monteith townships with high-speed Internet for those locales as well.
Short-sited
Almaguin News - Editorial - May 26, 2011 - 10:45 AM
There is no use beating around the bush.
We here at the Almaguin News are pro tower.
We thought briefly of holding off judgment on the proposed 300-foot tower for the Katrine area, that would overlook Doe Lake and surrounding communities, until all sides had weighed-in on the debate about whether the proposed site of the tower was suitable or not.
Internet tower meeting a raucous affair
Almaguin News
Rob Learn - May 26, 2011 - 11:21 AM
BURK’S FALLS – The change of venue may have satisfied the seating requirements for a public meeting on a proposed tower high above Katrine, but there was one factor that couldn’t be mitigated – the din.
Voices were definitely raised at the Burk’s Falls Young at Heart Senior Centre Tuesday night as proponents of the 300-foot tower to bring high-speed Internet to a big swath of Armour Township and beyond explained the project and listened to questions and concerns from residents.
Tower would boost fire communications
Almaguin News - Rob Learn - May 26, 2011 - 11:19 AM
KATRINE – One group hoping that a tower like the one being proposed for high speed Internet in Katrine is the Burk’s Falls and District Fire Department.
Fire board chair John Wilson said the tower, if erected, would do a lot of good for his department’s communication abilities.
“Part of the problem we have with the fire department radios is Katrine has always been a trouble area,” said Wilson, describing the village as a “dead zone” for both two-way radios and pagers. “…We’ve tried a number of things over the years but none of them have alleviated that dead zone.”
Tower opposition anticipated
May 19th, 2011 11:04am
KATRINE – A public meeting next Tuesday night is expected to draw a lot of attention as the topic of discussion will be a new 300-foot-tall communications tower to bring high-speed Internet to the township and surrounding area.
“We’ve been told that there could be up to 60 people at the meeting,” said Armour reeve Bob MacPhail. He’s asked staff to move the meeting originally planned for the council chambers to the seniors’ centre on Yonge Street to accommodate a larger group.
Internet Billing Debate: Too little, too late
Apr 11, 2011 – 10:47 PM ET
Bell has retreated from its demands for an arm and a leg for a gigabyte. Now it just wants a hand
By Rocky Gaudrault
Bell Canada took a step back from its aggressive and much-derided stance on usage-based billing (UBB) recently when it announced it would drop efforts to impose an exorbitantly priced UBB model on independent Internet service providers (IISPs) such as TekSavvy Solutions Inc.
Instead, purportedly acceding to IISPs’ requests, it would supply bandwidth to IISPs through an aggregated volume pricing (AVP) model, allowing IISPs to allocate bandwidth as they wished among their customers. Bell would still price bandwidth based on usage; the cost would be 19.5¢ per gigabyte when purchased in a package of one terabyte (1,000 GB), and 29.5¢ per GB for any overage.
On the surface this appears to be a generous concession by Bell, an improvement on a severely restrictive supply model and otherworldly pricing far beyond that seen anywhere else in the industrialized world (its previous UBB plan sought up to $2.50/GB).
Viewed in the context of recent events, and with a clear understanding of the underlying costs and capacity issues, AVP is a strategic retreat by Bell, made in the face of the withering fire it endured when an aroused Canadian public got hip to Bell’s game and cried foul. Bell had finally gone too far in taking advantage of the goodwill of the Canadian public.
Like many such retreats, this is too little and too late.
More: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/04/11/internet-billing-debate-too-little-too-late/