A new project launching this fall in the Kenora area hopes to serve as a new model for bringing high-speed internet to rural areas.
Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN), an Ottawa-based non-profit organization, is funding the project, which will make use of radio equipment installed in trees to bring high-speed internet to Black Sturgeon, Schnarr, Grassy, and Austin lake areas.
Kirby Koster, senior manager in charge of broadband programs with CENGN, said a company called Camp Communications has been contracted to handle the actual equipment installation.
“They’re mounting radio systems in … tall, white pine trees, generally because they’re strong and resilient and often have a lifespan of up to 250 years,” Koster said. “There are a lot of them in that part of the country, and typically they have fairly sparse branches up at the higher levels.”
A high-speed signal is sent to the radio equipment, and then carried along a cable that runs along utility poles, and connected to individual homes or camps in the area, he said.
Koster said while internet connections are currently available in the area, they’re very slow, typically providing a download speed of about five megabits per second and an upload speed of one megabit per second.
“Oftentimes it can be even lower than that with some of the existing services that are in the area,” he said. ” So these people are really struggling to do video calls to work from home, to do distance learning, distance medicine.”
“Those rates may have been adequate five or 10 years ago, but more and more, we’re finding today that they’re just not adequate for many of the families, especially if they have one or more people … trying to work from home or one or more students that are trying to do home learning.”
The new system will allow various speeds, Koster said, with the minimum being 50 megabits per second down, and 10 megabits per second up.
Kenora was one of many communities to apply to be a part of the program, which Kirby said aims to be up and running by the fall.
The city was selected because it has a large footprint and wanted a way to provide residents who live farther than five kilometres away from the city centre with broadband connections.
The installation of the needed infrastructure will cost about $300,000, Koster said, which is much cheaper than the usual method of providing a fibre optic connection.
“Typically, just to get the fibre optic connectivity out to that region, never mind getting it to each home, would typically cost you … up to about $85,000 per kilometre,” he said. “If you’re looking at a distance of, minimum, five to 10 kilometres to reach each of these lakes, you’re looking at a lot of money there just to get this, never mind actually providing the service to the individual homes.”
“That’s usually the barrier to entry to extending to these small communities.”
Koster said plans for the project will later be provided to internet service providers who want to install similar systems in rural areas elsewhere.
