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Inukshuk: Highspeed Unplugged

Posted by garym on April 4, 2006 - 12:50pm

My inside informant at Bell told me this morning that broadband relief is on the way for rural Canada. "Expect 3Mbps download and 384k upload speeds, and expect to see it in Sauble sometime this year" -- only it's better than that, because it is here today. And what is it that has finally washed up on the beach to save us all? They call it Inukshuk and it's the future of highspeed, unplugged and everywhere:

Inukshuk is using pre-final-certification WiMAX technology to operate the network, making it the first large-scale WiMAX deployment in North America. Bell and Rogers used their preexisting infrastructure such as cellular towers to install the network, which operates in spectrum licensed to the companies already. Those spectrum licensing requirements stipulate that the service be made available in at least 25 unserved rural markets in the next year and 50 by March 2008.
[ via Canadian WiMAX network launched ]

Bell has a flash-laden pre-sales page but it crashed my browser so I can't say what it says. Rumour-mill, however, says the service is already live in some locales, and premium service will run about $65/month with a lower-grade option at about $50, which is only just pricier than the xDSL.

No solid details on the cost of end-user equipment or installations, but here again rumours say $299 for the basestation transceiver (maybe $99 on a term contract) so it's already so way cheaper than our current wireless we could amortize the investment within a few months.

Guess this explains (a) why Bell wouldn't give us any answer about the infamous Jewels Bridge DSL and (b) why Datastore hasn't been answering my emails about my rapidly decaying Matrix bandwidth ...

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It's a go. Now.

Submitted by garym on April 4, 2006 - 1:54pm.

I called the 1-866-875-9591 and it's a go, now, today. WiMAX is available in Sauble Beach, with the Plan 2 highspeed version (3M inbound, 384k upload) for $60/month, and the modem costs a one-time $250, or $99 if you sign on for two years.

That's the good news.

And now the bad news, which admittedly isn't so bad:

  1. There is a bit-cap of 60GB per month, which translates into sufficient bandwidth for only 15 DVDs of data; I'm not sure even I could exceed that, but if I did, the overage is charged at some as yet unknown rate (they fellow I talked to said they hadn't got that far in their product planning yet; the FAQ said $7.95 per GB over).
  2. before you sign for the two years, you should know that these initial WiMAX modems will operate at a lower frequency than those to come in a year or so; the current band is already in the cell-phone provider's domain here in Canada, but it is restricted for military use in the US, so the Americans can't buy into WiMAX until the higher-frequency modems are ratified and deployed, and that could be a year, maybe more. Probably doesn't bug you that much if you'd been on dialup, but just so you know, the box you buy on the two-year term is going to be obsolete before it's paid off. But then, what isn't these days?
  3. They are not yet tied into the Bell billing system, so you have to use a credit card to pay -- this should be all fixed by July 1, "at the latest"

I of course asked about trees and asked about what 'available' might mean considering our Bell cellphone doesn't do digital inside our property line and if it was just a brick that I plug into my home LAN and he assured me that if it doesn't work, I can cancel and get a refund even if I'm on the 2-year plan.

So that's the story. To order, you have to call that number, you can't get this through the shop at the mall, but it's ready to roll.

and if you'll excuse me, I have to go recompute the home budgets ...

oh dear, have you seen my chequebook?

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Oh No It's Not :(

Submitted by garym on April 5, 2006 - 3:05pm.

So today I call them up, ready to roll, ready to sign on and be WiMAX'd into broadband bliss. Now, keep in mind that yesterday I called them 4 times and talked to at least two different people and had them three times confirm my address as within the coverage region.

"Oh ... well ... then I guess I should have ordered the service yesterday when it was available in Sauble Beach!"

But I think my sarcasm was maybe beyond his grasp of the language. So ... we're back at my insider informant's original prediction, namely, and excuse me if this sounds all too familiar, "Not now, but soon. Real soon."

I'm going to call them again tomorrow!

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever