Bell slow to deliver high speed internet

Michael Hilborn
Staff writer

The long-awaited, much anticipated DSL Internet service will be coming to the Rainy River District – but not just yet.That was the message conveyed by Bell Canada Area Manager Bernie Blake to the Rainy River District Municipal Association annual meeting in Stratton on Saturday.
Blake said he understood people in the area have been clamoring for high-speed Internet access for some time, but at the moment, Bell Canada is not in a position to provide it.
“We have no approved plan at this time,” said Blake to a muted chorus of groans. “The problem has always been to use existing high-capacity technology in a rural situation, but at the moment, the costs simply don’t justify it.”
Blake said Bell has already invested over $70 million in the northwest since 1999-2000 and has other priorities.
“We have a mandate from the CRTC to provide service in unserviced and underserviced areas,” he pointed out. “We have already invested $200 million in that area.”
Blake said some new technologies may solve the problem, but it is too early to determine if they are cost-effective.
“The challenge for 2003 will be to find a Bell-like technology that is cheaper for us to deploy and makes economic sense in a rural situation.”
Part of the problem, he explained, is DSL service has a limited range. Currently, the service is only only available up to a distance of 4.5 kilometres from each switch. In an urban setting, the number of potential customers within that radius justifies a network of intersecting switches.
In rural areas, it does not.
Furthermore, said Blake, current technology requires the deployment of three separate platforms to provide DSL plus all the other services expected. That, he said, is sticking point.
“We’re looking for the technology that will use one platform for five or six products,” he said. “Some companies are having success in that area and we are working with them now.”
“There’s a lot happening,” he added, “but it’s too soon to tell what the final product will be. It might even be wireless.”
One additional potential obstacle is competition. Caren Naismith, Blake’s assistant said once DSL technology was deployed, other services could come in and lease the resources and sell the product at a cheaper price to the consumer.
Another issued raised at the meeting concerned the time displayed on some phones in the district. All are set to Eastern Time and some people wanted to know if anything could be done about it. Again, the answer was “No.”
“The timing display switch is located in Thunder Bay,” said Blake. “We knew we would have this problem (in the west), but to put an additional switch in Fort Frances would cost $11 million.
Bell has gone to its suppliers to see if there is a way to incorporate two time zones on one switch, but Blake said that is not yet possible. He reminded the audience this particular switch is the only one of its kind in North America.