One company says it will be able to provide fast, quality Internet access to traditionally underserved rural areas in Canada and still make money.“It's sustainable. If it's not strategic and economic, then you don't have a business case. But in this particular case, it is economic,” said Chris Johnston, executive vice-president of marketing for Xplornet. “Our cost to deliver to the customer allows us to do so in ways that traditional (approaches) weren't able to do.”In a press release dated July 28, the New Brunswick-based company announced its plan to deliver download speeds of 25 megabits per second (mbps) to 100 per cent of the rural population by 2017.To do so, Xplornet will be finishing its fixed wireless network, which is delivered using transmission towers, by the second quarter of 2015, Johnston said.In addition to that network, Johnston said Xplornet would expand service by using capacity purchased with two new satellites, ViaSat-2 and Jupiter 2/EchoStar XIX, starting in 2016.Xplornet defines the rural areas it is targeting as places where people are currently using dial-up, are underserved by existing providers or do not have Internet access at all, he said.“And that could be a combination of people who live, the people and businesses that live within suburban proximities to larger cities as far away as a customer or a business or residents that (are) more remote,” he said.Despite the company pledging to expand its service, the president of Olds' community-owned fibre optic provider is unfazed by the announcement.Bill Dunbar of O-NET said Xplornet would be a competitor of the Ontario-based company Airnet and not of O-NET, adding it wouldn't be able to match the one gigabit per second (gbps) bandwidth that O-NET provides.“But they can't touch fibre,” Dunbar said. “The announcement's good if they can actually make it in reality.”According to Dunbar, satellite service is susceptible to weather, particularly at higher frequencies.“The higher the frequency, the more it has impact,” he said. “You have different bands. You have what they call a C-band, which is lower frequencies. And you get the Ku-band and the Ka-band. They're higher frequencies.”The O-NET president said he hasn't seen the Xplornet press release but adds that 25 mbps service would be good for rural Canada if the company can follow through on its goal.“If they're going to actually up their speed and provide high quality service, good. It will be good for rural communities but right now they're not,” he said.Johnston said skeptics have said in the past that servicing rural areas is expensive using media such as cable and fibre and added wireless technology is the most cost-effective way to cover long distances.“What that means is affordability for the end customer and this has been proven for example, in satellite entertainment as an example,” he said. “So now, the same principles apply to broadband or to high-speed Internet.”Johnston said the company currently offers packages ranging from $49 to $80 per month, depending on speed and data usage.While Xplornet hasn't announced exact prices, he said the company would offer prices comparable to what urban consumers [email protected]
