One of Blue Sky Net's main goals is to bring affordable broadband to areas with limited or no access. Typically, urban areas throughout North America are well served with DSL and Cable Modem Service. By contrast, rural areas not only have slower speeds but also higher prices for these services. Simply put, building out a network in low-density areas costs more per subscriber versus urban areas, where a single apartment building can house hundreds of users as an example.

As a country, Canada ranks pretty high in the developed world in broadband penetration rates. However, there are many pockets of the country that remain a challenge in delivering these services. Unfortunately, Northern Ontario (especially the rural parts) is one of those pockets, but things are improving! Northern Ontario has a relatively low population density and a pretty rugged environment. These are the two main contributing factors to why you may not have high speed at home, or at your business.

Although it is unlikely that there will be complete parity between urban and rural broadband service, Blue Sky Net has a strategy to make it more equitable.

Community Based Network (CBN) Approach

Blue Sky Net believes the connectivity needs of under/unserved communities are best addressed by the private sector. What is required is the investment of additional capitol to improve the business case for lightly populated areas. This could be regarded as incentive for the private sector to expand/improve service in a given area. Our objective is to create new broadband Points of Presence (PoPs) outside of urban centres. These PoPs certainly aren’t enough to provide service to everyone, but form the basis for economical expansion into further smaller clusters. (expanding the super highway to the back roads). We see this as the best way of leveraging the finite amount of public funds available to expand service to the largest area possible.

Improving coverage-

The first step is we identify areas where coverage is insufficient to meet demand for service and determine a cost associated with the expansion of coverage. Next we

 conduct a tendering process for interested parties to propose a technical and a financial solution to overcome service gaps. Thirdly Blue Sky Net works with the successful bidder in writing funding application(s) to subsidize portions or components of the network’s infrastructure. Finally Blue Sky Net work's with the successful bidder to build or expand an existing network. Blue Sky Net function at this point is to manage any funding allocation and provide assistance and information.

Technology

Although Blue Sky Net remains technology agnostic, we do recognize the benefits of fixed wireless networks for our rugged geography with sparse population. Most of our completed and ongoing expansion projects have been primarily wireless networks. To learn more, click here. You may be interested in these wikipedia articles about WISPs operating in rural environments.

Why Wireless

Basically it is a proven technology, despite what people think, the technology has been used for quite a while. Recent advancements in wireless technology have brought the costs down so it can be used more economically on larger scales. Given our geography and population density, it was the most logical choice when considering coverage per dollar spent.

Access points are most often installed on the top of existing or new towers built specifically for broadband. Towers in strategic locations are becoming commodities for other forms of communication technologies like cellular phone service, digital tv and radio. Where compatible, these technologies can share space or colocate on the same tower leveraging investments for all contributing as well as minimizing the visual impact of these structures.

Other options?

Satellite Internet services is the one and only service available worldwide. Satellite access is often seen as a fallback service used in locations where terrestrial (DSL, Cable) and fixed wireless access is not available. As you might imagine, the cost of this service is high due to the fact the infrastructure (mainly the satellites themselves) are extremely specialized and expensive vehicles to launch and service. Blue Sky Net administers a subsidy program for businesses to access satellite internet service. Learn more about SIRA here.

Now, lets see what your options for getting high speed internet are.