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Industry
Canada's C-Band Transponder: A Public Benefit for Delivering Broadband
Connectivity in First Nations, Rural and Remote Communities
Minutes
of April 22, 2002 Meeting
Chariperson's
Welcoming Remarks:
Ken Thomas Neegan Burnside Engineering & Technology,
AFN, K-Net
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vision of broadband, NBTF
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opportunity for sharing and examining the opportunities to use
these resources
Introductions
1. Alison Rogan, CED
Division, Government of Nunavut
2. Rich
Kimbell, Public Works, Iqaluit, Nunavut
3. Glenn Steiner,
IC representative in Nunavut
4. Borys German,
Spectrum Engineer with IC working with Nunavut
5. Linda Maljan,
GNWT (Yellowknife)
6. Jacquelyn Burles,
GNWT (Yellowknife)
7. Jeff Philipp,
SSI Micro (Yellowknife)
8. Eric Eid, NWTel
(Whitehorse)
9. Wayne Boyce,
Telehealth Program Manitoba (Winnipeg)
10. Glen Collins,
Project Manager, Manitoba Telecom (Winnipeg)
11. Maurice Montreuil, Manitoba Broadband (Winnipeg)
12. Frank Fazio, IC Business Development Officer, Manitoba
13. Alfonz Koncan, Western Economic Diversification Program, Manitoba
14. Sheila Engel, Manitoba Health
15. Norma Spence, Manitoba Industry, Trade & Mines
16. Ian Cameron,
BC / Alberta Schoolnet help desk, BC
17. Peter Boorman, Vancouver Teleport (Vancouver)
18. Bryan Orthner,
Headwaters Project (Smart Saskatchewan)
19. Ken Alecxa, Western Economic Diversification Program, Sask
20. Ken Thomas, Neegan-Burnside Engineering & Technology (SK
21. Brian Beaton,
K-Net (Sioux Lookout, ON)
22. Dan Pellerin,
K-Net (Sioux Lookout, ON)
23. Carl Seibel, FedNor (Thunder Bay, ON)
24. Mike Collins,
Telesat (Ottawa)
25. Ed Miller,
Telesat (Ottawa)
26. Jim Hamilton, Communications Research Centre Canada (Ottawa)
27. Patrick Haggerty,
INAC (Ottawa)
28. Jacques Drouin, Connectivity Manager, IC SchoolNet (Ottawa)
29. Rachel Roy,
Industry Canada First Nations SchoolNet (Ottawa)
30. Will Dubitsky,
Industry Canada SchoolNet (Ottawa)
31. Rick Sellick,
Neegan Burnside Engineering and Technolog
32. Gordon Cobain,
Katavik Regional Government, Kuujuuaq/Nunavik (QC)
33. Stéfane
Boudrias, SOCAM (Quebec City), (via teleconference) - 3 additional
participants
34. Cindy Robbins,
Smart Labrador (via teleconference)
35. Doug Robbins,
Smart Labrador (via teleconference) Glen
Collin, Manitoba
36.
Bill Evans, EB Systems Limited, Winnipeg
REGIONAL
PRESENTATIONS
#
of Communities requiring satellite services: 14
#
of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in place
1
#
of Communities using Anik E2 1
Target dates for proposed network (14 sites) Q3 2002
Summary
of Presentation: (powerpoint presentation)
- Nunavik
Satellite Communication, http://www.krg.ca
- population
of about 8,700, mainly Inuit people, community sizes range from
2000 to150 people
- Bell
Canada only service provider delivering voice services with a
maximum of 14.4k data service to connect via long distance to
an ISP
- Challenges
include shipping equipment to communities
- pilot
project funded by Quebec government to complete phase 1 involving
the installation and testing of C-Band satellite dish and applications
- established
a non-profit organization to deliver high speed internet, improve
access to broadband services / applications (health, distance
education, gov't services, video conferencing, wide area networks,
worldwide exposure for e-commerce)
- the
project (Phase 1) objectives involved designing and establishing
a single hop inter-community data traffic (full mesh) satellite
service capable of delivering video conferencing, dynamically
assigned bandwidth as required
- Outcomes:
Kuujjuaq - dish in place, proof of concept established, testing
and evaluation completed, demos of wireless, video conference
and voice over IP completed, client evaluation of system done,
and complete analyze and evaluation presented (about 200 page
document)
- Phase
2: All other Nunavik Communities, targeting Q3 2002
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#
of Communities requiring satellite services: 11
# of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in
place 10
# of Communities using Anik E2 10
Target dates for proposed network (23 communities) UP
Summary
of Presentation: powerpoint
presentation available, 1.4M PDF, handout
in package)
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41 sites in 23 communities plus 2 communities in NFLD
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clinic and public access sites established in each community delivering
internet access, video conferencing, telehealth (making up about
1/2 the project), every health site but one connected today
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Labrador consists of about 30,000 people, 32 communities with
4 to 14 people in the smallest communities, the SmartLabrador
network is serving communities ranging in size from 65 to 10,000
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objective is to deliver equal access no matter where you live
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seeing changing to the region with the introduction of a new road
along the south coast connecting some of the communities in this
part of the region but the communities in along the northern coast
are remote
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Goose Bay (service centre for the region) and Labrador City are
considered urban providing links to the smallest centres across
the region
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the network consists of a hybrid solution consisting of satellite,
terrestrial and local wireless technologies
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Board of Directors are community development folks with the project
being developed by the regional economic development board, the
project is built on models proven by these groups with a focus
on community-based learning
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Training of volunteers at sites for video conferencing, network
of volunteers
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Partners include educational institutions
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Sample applications already utilizing the network include meetings
of cancer support groups, literacy groups wanting to get together,
contacting other groups, teachers testing students, virtual student
exchange with England and North coast students (now interested
in getting connected to neighbouring community)
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Half sites in schools, video conferencing and public access (now
the other schools are interested in getting connected)
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Smart services include telehealth, court services, education,
video connections to Gov't departments in Goose Bay and St. John'
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Labrador residents committed to their own communities, train-the-trainer,
building a learning network along side the technology network,
take off
- link
to St. John's - telemedicine and St Anthony
- 11
by satellite and the others by frame relay, wireless used between
the communities and within the communities, miles between the
communities, Lucent technologies
- telecom
partners are Alaint and Telesat
- separate
bandwidth, 512K for video and internet providing 128K outbound
on separate channels (Internet traffic share a common inbound
channel 768K)
- same
strategy for frame relay service with 128k allocation for local
internet service
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#
of Communities with access problems (some might require satellite
service): 23
#
of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in place:
0
#
of Communities using Anik E2: 0
Target
dates for proposed network: dependent on fundraising
Summary
of Presentation: (handout
in package)
- SOCAM
web site: http://www.meskino.qc.ca/socam/indexe.html
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27 communities on CAP, 24 were able to be connected
- 3
ended up returning the dollars to Industry Canada due to connectivity
problems
- see
information distributed in the package for description of different
regional challenges and needs
- some
do 56k, T1 ($3,300 per month),
#
of Communities requiring satellite services: 12
#
of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in place:
2
# of Communities using Anik E2: 2
Target dates for proposed network: UP (with 6 more being added Q2
2002)
Summary
of Presentation: (powerpoint
presentation, handout in package - Fort
Severn Business Case)
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tribal council partnering with a number of others to establish
broadband connectivity and required applications
- scalable
network model, 2 communities on-line today with 6 more being added
Q2 - 2002, 4 other First Nations are satellite served as well
- utilizing
the community aggregator model from the NBTF
#
of Communities requiring satellite services: 21
#
of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in place:
21
# of Communities using Anik E2: 21
Target dates for proposed network: UP
Summary
of Presentation: (from speaking notes)
- Linda Maljan and
Jacquelyn Burles, GNWT:
- GNWT leases space
on Ardicom, - 33 communities, population of about 40,000 ranging
in size from 53 to 18,000
- telehealth services
being delivered in 3 NWT communities with 4 more communities scheduled
to come on-line, bandwidth and pricing concerns
- Distance education
is available for completing high school in every school. In the
smaller communities some Grades 10, 11 and 12 courses are available
only via distance education for a number of reasons. Distance
Ed courses are purchased from Alberta, which has the same curriculum
as the NWT. As Alberta increases their bandwidth through Supernet
and alters the delivery of course content to take advantage of
this increased capacity, NWT students may lose the ability to
participate in the distance ed. courses.
- 64K data services
that is shared by the community resulting in no one being happy
any longer due to increased usage / demand and required broadband
applications
- Community members
use the school sites or community learning centres for public
access through CAP sites, and through a new virtual libraries
project.
- Issues - big hopes
for NBTF, local access in 8 communities (local ISPs), last mile
connectivity, GNWT pays to use network as anchor tenant, need
more bandwidth, cost of services, partnership vs contract
- Looking for partners
and finding ways to improve efficiency and reduce cost
- objective is to establish
equitable access
- Erik Eid, Northwestel:
- Northwestel provides
telecom services for Yukon, NWT and Nunavut regions using a satellite
network involving dishes ranging in size from 4.5 to 10 meter,
can add bandwidth without investing in additional infrastructure
but transponder (i.e bandwidth) costs are a big factor
- Ardicom is a joint
venture with Northwestel with the gov't being the anchor tenants
on the network
- Northwestel can add
Bandwidth to existing C-band satellite infrastructure, have 48
satellite nodes in total: 26 Nunavut, 1 in Yukon, 21 in NWT
- Jeff Philipp, SSI
Micro
- new
private venture to build their own satellite network after reviewing
the alternative business cases, Power Corp is anchor tenants,
business case for providing internet in the smaller communities
if they can be all sharing the same virtual network, lower cost
to access, 4.5 m dishes used (shipping and cost challenges), capable
of 6M transmission, bandwidth is dynamically allocated using TDMA
platform, video conferencing, multi-tasking, 10 communities on-line
today (Nunavut) with potentially 13 this year (plan involves connecting
all communities in Nunavut and half in the NWT), overhead is lower,
IP based, VOIP capabilities, inter-community traffic is lower,
determined that the return on investment is 12 months, expansion
of the network is possible using existing platform but would require
additional resources to add in video conferencing management with
QoS and CIR, partnering with birth-right corporations
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#
of Communities requiring satellite services: 1
# of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in
place: 1
# of Communities using Anik E2: 1
Target dates for proposed network: UP
Summary
of Presentation: (from speaking notes)
-
Northwestel has a total of 48 C-band satellite nodes in the North:
1
in the Yukon, 21 in the Northwest Territories (NWT) and 26 in
Nunavut
- All
of Northwestel's Satellite Communities use Anik E2 Bandwidth to
each community ranges from 64 kbps to >T1.
- ADSL
services in place in all 12 Yukon communities with government
being the anchor tenant, video bridging services available, long-term
service contract, development strategy involved levering infrastructure
to offer local connectivity, interactive video, ICT business development
- completed
by 2001
- 90%
of households have access to high speed
- 384
to 768 kbps for video conferencing
- a
terrestrial build- trunking between data switches ranges from
2Mbps to 45Mbps
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7.
Presenters: Alison Rogan / Rich Kimbell/ Eric Eid / Jeff
Philipp Nunavut |
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#
of Communities requiring satellite services: 26
# of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in
place: 26
# of Communities using Anik E2: 26
Target dates for proposed network: UP
Summary
of Presentation: (from speaking notes)
- Nunavut Broadband
Task Force (NBTF) formed to get private sector partner, gov't
of Nunavut main driver of the economy, 26 recommendations to deploy
broadband to businesses, gov't, agencies
- Culture, education,
health big drivers for broadband in Nunavut
- working with private
sector to submit proposal to IC, recommended that deploying 17
projects to push transformation to knowledge economy
- Decentralized gov't,
covering a region making up 1/5 of Canada, population of about
50,000
- Health budget of about
$670 million with $30 million to cover medical travel, quality
of health care is terrible
- Education is similar
as NWT, Grade 12 available in all schools
- Public access sites
available in 11 communities with partnerships with Microsoft and
Gates to develop an enhanced local service
- Challenge to afford
present costs for connectivity, no tax base, 94% of population
in public housing
- with a very vibrant
economic potential for example film making, stone carvers, etc
requiring on-line presentations and broadband connectivity
- 14 communities are
not part of the decentralized gov't providing local jobs and services,
ie. very challenged economically
- 26 communities connected
via satellite, 64K to 512K with room to expand, paying for bursting
capabilities - main tenants include RCMP, Parks Canada, Ardicom,
Gov't of Nunavut
- Challenged to deliver
to decentralized communities, developed and implemented 2.5 to
1 for compression, scale the usage to manage the available bandwidth
on site, majority of internet traffic is thru Yellowknife POP
with several bottlenecks, the double hops to T1 that is filled
very quickly
- Moving Forward proposal
instead of subsidizing connectivity, looking to Gov't of Nunavut,
support local organizations and services that are not on-line
- commitment from Industry
Canada for public benefit usage of transponder for projects, bring
together players
- willing
to circulate Moving Forward proposal
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8.
Presenters: Maurice Montreuil / Glen Collins/ Wayne Boyce
Manitoba |
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#
of Communities requiring satellite services: ?
# of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in
place: 3
# of Communities using Anik E2: 3
Target dates for proposed network: UP
Summary
of Presentation: (from speaking notes and powerpoint
presentations)
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representing the telecom needs of First Nation, northern and Metis
communities
- Connectivity
in the PDN (provincial data network) but others are not included
- some
have one party line, looking for equitable access
- government
supporting the principal of equity of service and price no matter
where we live
- Community
members lacking education opportunities, 62 First Nations and
many Metis communities, north of 54 parallel, nursing stations
do not have the connectivity, need to start with health and move
to the community wide applications
- supporting
the concept of regionally owned telecos and provision of local
services
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some resource based communities are losing75% of their population
(Leaf Rapids, Lynn Lake)
- satellite
served communities connecting to terrestrial network serving all
community members and owned by the region
- communities
are raising their own capital with the plan to develop their own
business
- sharing
the resources so they can grow and develop local opportunities
- telehealth
network (funded by Health Canada - CHIPP), 17 sites, Health Sciences
Centre as the hub
- Churchill,
Lynn Lake and Leaf Rapids (C-Band), Berens River (Ku-band)
- 512K
access for video connectivity
- legacy
ISDN equipment is being kept in operation for reaching other centres
- delivering
some services into Keewaytinook Okimakanak (telepsychiatry, etc)
Nunavut (5 communities) therefore dealing with different carriers
and cross border health issues
- contract
with Gov't services, Provincial Data Network,
- using
T1 lines, can be expanded as move to broadband, multi-point control
unit to be able to connect all the sites, need for ongoing CME,
grand rounds, from site- to-site-to-site for seeing patients,
establishing a gateway for connections to other ISDN served health
centres
- cost
avoidance studies, HC studies, for patients avoiding travel, need
to consider health administrators, health professionals as well
- PDN
- shared network access point, VPNs for various clients,
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establishing 100 M, 4-10M, broadband circuits on an IP network
in 85 communities
- replacing
existing Frame relay network
- government
is purchasing services from telecommunication vendors under contract
until December 2006, using MPLS for QoS
- telecommunication
vendors can sell services to other customers within the community
- 3
satellite served sites - roving 768 for telehealth with downlink
to Winnipeg
- satellite
service under contract until Nov, 2002
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# of Communities requiring satellite services: ~6
# of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in
place: 0
# of Communities using Anik E2: 0
Target dates for proposed network
Summary
of Presentation: (from speaking notes)
- Headwaters
Project is Saskatchewan's Smart Demonstration Project serving
Northern Sask, size of Texas, same challenges, distance, requirements
as described from other regions
- using
connectivity to solve some challenges
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Fairly good road infrastructure, there are a few communities only
accessible by winter roads and plane
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Region has a population of about 35,000 with 2 communities without
any phone at all
- SaskTel
has fibre infrastructure providing toll free dial up ISP service
for those community off the digital network
- In
the north, 28.8 to 14.4k connect speeds due to quality of existing
phone network
- SaskTel
is owned by provincial gov't therefore the shareholders are the
people of the province
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Provincial gov't CommunityNet announcement providing connectivity
across the province with the gov't being the anchor tenants, SaskTel
uses the dollars to scale up to DSL service throughout the communities
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Provided to 45 communities, DSL available to anchor tenants but
no incentive for the rest of the community
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in the Headwaters Project (under the Sask. smart communities demonstration
project) 42 CAP sites in 35 communities, 6 have DSL in 9 sites,
with new 9 sites scheduled to receive DSL service
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Sasktel provides the educational community with the equivalent
of the DirecPC solution but using an existing transponder for
Sask only and therefore the speeds back into the communities is
reasonable and consistent
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about 400K down with phone connections for uplink from the provincial
schools
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First Nations education system is another story, limited to satellite
solution (example of local First Nation had to buy DSL as their
own local solution - $45 dollars a month - $1700 for T1)
- satellite
service is managed by SCN
- Sasktel
for DSL access in LaRonge in the north
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Internet provided by MSAT phone and DirecPC and cell phone connections
in a couple of community schools
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About 30 communities, reached by land
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estimated 6 communities outside of SaskTel network and might require
satellite
- story
of receiving 4.8 m dishes folded in half by shipper
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# of Communities requiring satellite services (estimate): ~12 in
BC, 2 in Alberta
# of Operational Communities with C-Band data earth stations in
place: 2
# of Communities using Anik E2: 2
Target dates for proposed network
Summary
of Presentation: (from speaking notes)
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providing First Nations with helpdesk advice (technical, installation,
some operational) for the local schools through Industry Canada's
First Nation SchoolNet program
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North of 50 degrees all the schools are using the DirecPC back
haul limited by outbound speed (9.6k with a max 14.4k for dial
up service) - no longer satisfactory due to overselling and congestion
on DirecPC service
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6 without phones, therefore using MSAT phones with DirecPC backhaul
(4.8K outbound) - no longer acceptable
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communities are now purchasing two-way satellite system (C-Com)
and using it for things like e-mail to doctors (in one community
without phones), shopping on-line, etc
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further north, some communities are reporting paying $1200 to
$1400 in long distance charges to the nearest ISP
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these communities do not have fair and equitable access to telecom
services
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economic development opportunities are undermined by this situation
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communities are looking for the solutions to make this work and
some are now investing in getting their own solutions but most
lack the financial resources to deliver true broadband
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in northwestern Alberta there are 2 communities that can only
be reached by satellite and on the coast in BC, 15 communities
will need C-Band solutions (Alberta's
SuperNet)
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telehealth, education, economic and business development will
be the main applications for broadband delivering data, video
and voice services
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11.
Presenter: Peter Boorman Skybridge a Global Solution
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Summary
of Presentation: (from powerpoint
presentation)
- Vancouver
Teleport, involved in building networks for telecos and enterprise
networks
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as Northwestel's ex-president, lots of experience in design, construction
and maintenance of satellite service in very difficult environments
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weather conditions, technicians get noisy lines, service requires
high cost, very expensive if we use the same standards established
by the telecom industry
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Ardicom contract, 58 communities using a frame relay connection
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Partnership of both aboriginal partners and the local telco with
government as the anchor tenant
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Low speed IP data and video on demand only
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Provides communications to 70 plus remote communities
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Voice over IP not feasible in present network architecture
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54 communities out of 96 do not have internet for residential
level
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$14M to put in place, expensive switching, new sites (almost all
of them)
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Identified Pitfalls include:
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development has not kept pace with innovation
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bandwidth very limited eg 64/128k on satellite
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bandwidth oversubscribed in the communities
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frame relay costly on satellite connections with only 30% payload
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latency excessive especially between remote sites
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poor utilization of satellite transponder with 50% wasted assignment
- cooperative
networks are one solution for management of earth station, cooperative
management of network, bidding on the sites
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12.
Presenter: Jeff Philipp Inukshuk
Wireless Solutions for the Last Mile |
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Summary
of Presentation: (from experience of working with Adamee
and Microcell)
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wireless 802 Ghz, 802.11a and b standards coming on-line
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product pricing is reaching point where is affordable and accessible
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access point into the commercial market is getting closer
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ISM band
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IC 2.5ghz, boost power, non line of sight, low cost, high density,
customer centre
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Dial up Internet service is an impossible business case without
aggregation of communities
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Co-management - roaming with accounts, multi-sites, with billing
based on usage
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Controls to limit connecting, establishing policy.
Summary:
Ken
Thomas - different points of view, exploring all the options,
representing the interest of First Nations, learn from other solutions
Meeting
adjourned at 6:00 pm to meet again at 8 am the next morning
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