Kamloops catches wireless network fever
Participants see system
boosting local IT economy
By Monte Stewart
Business Edge
Published: 01/12/2007
Vol. 4, No. 1
A new Kamloops high-speed wireless network will help the area attract more information-technology workers and shift away from a resource-based economy, says a city official.
"The impetus behind this was the fact that we know that Kamloops has traditionally been viewed as a resource-based economy," says Jeff Putnam, CEO of Venture Kamloops, the municipality's economic development arm.
"But we're really changing quickly with the Thompson Rivers University here now and with Open Learning University moving from Burnaby to Kamloops with 200 jobs. We have call centres now that employ almost 2,000 people in the city that weren't here five years ago. Now, we're developing the infrastructure to support their needs."
The city and Kamloops-based On Call Internet Services Ltd. have teamed up on a three-year public-private partnership to offer wireless connectivity to municipal employees and local businesses. Man of the firms are small.
"It helps our organization save money, because we're going to have our bylaw-enforcement officers, building inspectors - our mobile workers - that have their laptop with them and are on the go," says Putnam. "They're not going to have to come back and forth to the office 80 times a day."
In the private sector, realtors, lawyers and contractors will
also benefit, he adds.
Paying flat fees, customers will be able to connect to the
Internet wirelessly via 23 hotspots in the B.C. Interior community.
(The deal adds 14 hotspots to nine that were part of an existing
network.) Companies that allow their buildings to serve as
access points share
in the project's revenue.
Putnam says the deal enables 80 per cent of the Kamloops population to have wireless Internet access. The city invested $106,000 over three years, but the investment is "minimal" because the city already has 40 kilometres of ultra-high-speed fibreoptic cable in place.
"We've connected all our public utilities and schools and university with city hall," he adds. "So we have just piggy-backed on that backbone to put (on) all these wireless access points throughout the (network) to be hotspots. As a result, it only cost us $106,000 to get these things moving and to serve the population."
He says the agreement's primary aim is to support the knowledge-based economy and help employers attract new trained workers.
"Secondly, I would call it good government, because it allows city employees to increase productivity," says Putnam. "It's also going to save us money on future cellphone use, because once they get the hardware equipment by a truck, we're going to go to voice-over Internet (protocol) for internal communications. We won't have to rely on Blackberries and cellphones. There'll be significant cost savings.
"Lastly, it's really about livability, and increase the lifestyle choices for residents. If you're a small business (operator), you can literally go to a waterfront park and check your e-mail. That's really important."
The city and On Call will re-visit the agreement after three years and consider adding expanded services such as VoIP and video conferencing.
On Call president Cindy Quigley says the first nine access points were expected to take up 1,250 customers.
"We've now tripled that network, so I expect that we'll triple the user base," says Quigley. She says the deal capitalizes on the five-year-old fibreoptic-cable network that On Call and the city partially funded. "We helped build the network and then we're able to use it," says Quigley.
On Call serves 8,000 customers in 16 communities around Kamloops, including Logan Lake, Chase, Sun Peaks and Merritt. The company serves as an Internet service provider (ISP) while also providing web hosting and design, domain-name registration and other online services.
Quigley says the agreement with the city has allowed the company to showcase its "ISP-in-a-box" product, which was originally designed to automate the ISP business so smaller communities could host services locally. "The automation of the system, basically, eliminated all of the (administration) functions so a single-person entity in a community could host the service. All they needed to do was own a laptop," she says.
It evolved from there to become a community network service. The company built networks in participation with community residents, businesses, the municipality - in this case, in Kamloops.
"Anyone who joins the network and helps us extend access points onto their building becomes a revenue-sharing participant in the whole network," she adds.
"That way, the networks grow pretty quickly and kind of grow themselves."
Quigley predicts the Kamloops deal will lead to other small communities gaining wireless connectivity. On Call has also teamed up with Bala, Ont.-based Indiiginet Corp., which builds networks and aims to connect First Nations communities across the country.
"It's kind of like a strategic alliance, because there are a lot of First Nation communities across Canada right now that are looking to build networks," says Quigley.
Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca.
