This general information document is comprised of a list of frequently asked questions by the citizens of Lanark County and is intended to provide a single point of reference for information regarding the Lanark County High-speed Internet Project. This document will be updated regularly.
What are the most important things I should know about this project?
Answer:
Following the June 2009 announcement of the approval of the County's application to Rural Connections, Storm has installed high-speed internet at hundreds of additional locations in Lanark County.
The County and Storm has completed contract negotiations and an agreement has been signed by both parties. This project will allow Lanark County to achieve 95% coverage of its citizens by June 2011. Though negotiations has taken longer than expected, Lanark County is pleased with the fact that the agreement allows for the completion of this 1.9 million dollar project using primarily provincial funding and contributions from Storm Internet with the County only contributing existing staff time.
To achieve the desired coverage, Major Towers (80 to 100 feet) and Micro-node Towers (usually less than 80 feet) need to be constructed. As construction progresses, some citizens may be able to be connected as early as the fall of 2010 while others (mainly those requiring micro-nodes) will be connected later on.
The process below defines how citizens will eventually be provided with high-speed Internet service:
- All citizens interested in high-speed Internet must complete Storm's Wireless Application process by completing Storm's "dial-up friendly" web form at http://www.storm.ca/lanark/signup.html (this is the preferred method) or by calling 1-866-257-8676. This will ensure that we know you are at least interested. Please keep the ticket number (also known as a Request ID) they provide you as a reference. If for some reason they do not give you one, you should ask for it. If you have already done this, then you do not need to do it again.
- Installation of Major Towers located in Lavant, Balderson, Burgess Hall, Maberly, Elphin and Innisville (all Towers will be operational by end of the 2010 fall season). Currently the Lavant and Balderson towers are already operational.
- As each Major tower becomes operational, site surveys will be conducted. Storm will only schedule site surveys for residences that have completed step 1. Residents that have completed an application can expect that when a major tower servicing their area has become operational, that they will be contacted by Storm and notified of the schedule of site surveys.
- Citizens that are able to connect to the major tower directly will be contacted by Storm to schedule installation (subject to agreement of price and installation costs).
- Storm will identify those residences that require a micro-node in order to connect to the major tower indirectly.
- Storm will establish a lease agreement with a micro-node host. This step begins within a few weeks of step 3 but its completion is dependent on whether or not an ideal micro-node location can be found and if the citizen owning the property is willing to be a host under reasonable terms and conditions. Once each micro-node has becomes operational, Storm will contact all residents that can obtain high-speed Internet as a result of the new micro-node.
- Storm will repeat steps 5 to 6 until no more micro-node hosts can be obtained or all citizens* have been installed.
*Some residences may not be serviceable at all due to topographical challenges. Consequently, we estimate that 5% of Lanark County Citizens may not be serviceable (hence the 95% overall coverage target).
What is the background on this project, how/why was it conceived?
Answer:
The Government of Ontario has recognized that lack of high-speed internet availability in rural areas is a problem. In 2007 they launched a funding program called Rural Connections to help municipalities provide their citizens with access to high-speed internet.
Key rules of the funding program are that:
- Funds can only go towards geographical areas where less than 76% of the population are able to obtain compliant high-speed internet service (these areas were called Under-served). Compliant high-speed internet means DSL, Cable, Fibre or High-speed Wireless (satellite is not considered compliant). Areas that satisfied this requirement were deemed eligible.
In 2007, Lanark County applied for $700,000 in funding (implying that the County would need to secure an additional $1.4 million) to ensure that 95% of the population of Lanark County (within the eligible areas) would have at least one option to access high-speed internet (i.e. Ripnet, Storm, Bell DSL would be 3 options). The province approved one third of the amount requested ($233,000). As a result, Lanark County still moved forward with the project and issued a Request for Proposal asking Internet Service Providers to provide a solution that would cover 95% of the population of Lanark County (within the eligible areas). As a result of evaluating several proposals, Storm Internet was awarded a contract to cover 95% of the residences and businesses for a price of $233,000. In addition to providing $233,000 worth of network and infrastructure, Storm Internet contributed an additional $466,000 and therefore allowed the County to proceed with the project without increasing taxes. This was known as the Lanark County Broadband Project (Phase 1).
Unfortunately, during the Phase 1 project, the County was not able to acquire access to 3 provincially owned towers that were planned to be used in Phase 1 and consequently, areas of Tay Valley, Lanark Highlands and Drummond/North Elmsley were among the least covered areas in the first phase. Even given these challenges, Storm Internet had been able to service a majority of the citizens that have expressed an interest in acquiring high-speed Internet by completing Storm's online Wireless Application Form or via telephone to Storm Internet.
In 2009, the Province issued another round of funding (under the same key rules as in 2007). To address the remaining areas, not adequately covered by Phase 1, a budget was prepared that indicated a project cost of $1.9 million. The County applied for additional funding and has been approved for one third or $632,000 of the budgeted project cost which is now Phase 2 of the project. Since the Phase 1 project is complete, this General Information Document primarily focuses on Phase 2.
The goal of the County is to have Storm contribute $1.3 million dollars towards the project and to use the $632,000 from the province to complete the $1.9 million dollar project (therefore avoiding tax increases directly related to the project).
Why is this a good Project?
Answer:
In short, it is a good project because with the Province of Ontario funding program and contributing partners such as Storm Internet, we are able to address a demand from Lanark County citizens (approximately 8000 residents are unable to acquire high-speed Internet) without having to increase the taxes you pay to your Local Municipality.
Here's some other good reasons for a Project that provides High-speed Internet access to as many Lanark County Citizens as possible:
Quality of Life:
- Helps Lanark County continue to be a place where citizens can have the advantages of living in a rural communities while having access to the "conveniences" of urban areas. Banking on-line, getting photos and videos from friends and family, on-line shopping, access to information, social networking (ex. Facebook) are just a small fraction of the things the those with high-speed can enjoy.
Job Creation:
- High-speed Internet provides a mechanism for job creation within the county which will help attract young professionals. Small and medium sized businesses can take advantage of the e-commerce and the global market that comes with it.
- Companies headquartered outside of Lanark County are able to establish offices and provide tele-work (work from home) options within the county. With large urban neighbors such as Ottawa (who shares borders with the County) and Kingston, Lanark County is a prime location for those that want to "get out of the big city" and primarily tele-work. Many citizens are currently commuting a portion of the time and then tele-work for the balance of their work week.
Education
- Many school projects require that students research information on the internet. Those without high-speed are at a disadvantage.
- The ability to obtain an education on-line will help Lanark County address its own "brain drain" problem. It is often the case that young high school graduates leave the county to attend post-secondary schools but fail to return after they have established a network in the "big city". Providing an option to obtain an education on-line via high speed instead of taking residence elsewhere can only help minimize the "brain drain".
Other:
- The County has the potential to thrive from its aging population as well. Through high-speed access, education and awareness, volunteers can become better matched with organizations through their web-sites.
- For those that may be less physically mobile this provides an alternative means of contributing and interacting.
- Lanark County currently has 2410 seasonal residences (cottages). One of the slogans for the Town of Perth states "One hundred lakes within 50 miles". The natural beauty of Lanark will continue to provide incentive for people to build or purchase seasonal residences here. Adding high-speed Internet access will help make things even more attractive thereby contributing to the economy of the region.
- The County, six rural municipalities and three urban municipal governments within Lanark all deliver e-services through their web sites. The citizens connected to broadband will be able to avail themselves of the ever increasing electronic service delivery (which would include Federal and Provincial e-government as well).
What am I getting out of this project and when will I get it?
Answer:
Not everyone will benefit from this project. The County is bound by the rules of the Provincial Funding Agreement in terms of where the money can be spent. The Province essentially wants to provide service to rural areas of Ontario that have no options to obtain high-speed internet. Furthermore, the service areas must be sustainable to ensure that vendors are able to support the service over time. Based on these rules, you are eligible to benefit from this project if you meet ALL the following all criteria:
- You live in an area where less than 76% of the population have the ability to purchase compliant internet services that provide 1.5 Mbps or better download speeds such as DSL, Cable Internet, Fibre. Note that Dial-up, Satellite and Cellular technologies such as Bell Turbo-stick and Rogers Rocket Stick are not considered compliant.
- In your area, there are enough customers to allow for a sustainable service (i.e. the ISP can be profitable enough support the infrastructure that needs to be built to support your area).
- If there are topographical challenges, Storm is able to identify an area in your neighborhood where they are permitted to install a tower (height ranges from 50 feet and up). Depending on the height of your existing structure, it may look like any of the images found in Appendix A.
It is expected this project will be able to cover 95% of the eligible residential dwellings in Lanark County. To be realistic, we do expect that 5% of the eligible population may still not get service due to severe topographical challenges.
Assuming you are eligible and you have expressed an interest in acquiring high-speed Internet by completing Storm's online Wireless Application Form or via telephone to Storm Internet, you may be able to purchase high-speed internet from Storm as early as fall 2010. For those that require micro-nodes, the timelines are based on finding micro-node hosts. Regardless, Storm will achieve coverage of 95% of Lanark County citizens by June 2011. The details of the service and pricing provided by Storm is described below. From time to time, Storm Internet may offer special discounts. These discounts will not be listed in this document but can be found at their web-site (http://www.storm.ca) or by calling their support department at 1-866-257-8676. In the event that there is an ongoing promotion that you are eligible for, Storm will automatically incorporate the promotion into your quote and therefore, your costs may be lower than what is listed below:
- High-speed Wireless Service (i.e. not through your phone line and is based on radio equipment installed on the exterior of your home, communicating with other radio equipment in the area).
- Your total monthly costs for Storm's standard residential package is $40/month (+$10 for rental of radio) plus applicable taxes.
- It is important to compare apples to apples when it comes to internet services so when assessing the cost, it's important to note that the service you receive is as follows:
- Up to 1.5 - 3Mbps Download Speed (actual speed depends on the area you live in)
- Up to 1.5 - 3Mbps Upload Speed (actual speed depends on the area you live in)
- 50GB Monthly Throughput
- $1/GB Overage Fees
- 200 MB Website Space
- 15 POP3 Email Accounts
- Email Anti-Spam
- Dial-up Account as backup.
- Technical Support
A site survey will determine the height and location of where the radio needs to be installed. Installation costs will depend on which of the method below Storm must use to achieve the required height, signal strength, and location:
Radio Mount:
- A radio mounted to a short arm with a base that can be mounted on your existing structure. An existing structure includes but is not limited to, your home, garage or existing T.V. tower. See Diagram 2 and Diagram 3 of Appendix A.
- $200
Tripod and Mast:
- Typically required if you need to extend the height of the radio up to 15 feet above your existing structure. If the mounting point on the existing structure is strong enough, this method can be used to extend the radio up to 20 feet above your existing structure (allowing you to avoid using a tower). See Diagram 4 of Appendix A.
- $300
Gold Nugget Tower:
- Used where existing structures do not provide enough height using Radio Mount or Tripod methods.
- Typically cannot be used where radio height requirements exceed 60 feet.
- $200 + $125 per each 10 feet of tower added (ex. A brand new 40ft tower costs $700).
- Notes:
- There must be an existing structure that the tower can be mounted against
- If more than 20 feet of tower extends past the highest mount point of your existing structure, then guy wires will be needed (at no extra cost).
- See Diagram 1 of Appendix A.
DMX Tower:
- Typically used for radio heights from 60 to 80 feet where all other methods fail to achieve required height.
- Self Standing, Cement Foundation
- High Grade Metal to support extreme heights (See Diagram 5 of Appendix A.)
- $3500
Tree Installation:
- Usually a last resort (See Diagram 6 of Appendix A.).
- $350
Additional Costs:
- If radio is located a long distance away from where service is required (usually on a structure separate): + $150 for extra cabling.
- Custom installations which may require:
- Customer to perform some work on the property
- Digging and installing conduits which may require other subcontractors to do the work.
What is taking so long for the Phase 2 project to get started?
Answer:
The County's application for Phase 2 funding was submitted in February 2009. We received approval from the Province in June 2009. Since receiving notification of the approved funding, the County has been working on the following necessary elements of the project:
- Drafting the terms and conditions of the contract with OMAFRA the provinces funding ministry
- Setup the metrics and methodology that would allow us to measure coverage across the eligible areas.
- Defining the areas that require coverage.
- Exercised County procurement process for vendor selection.
- Locating tower sites that will be suitable for extending coverage in Phase 2
- Negotiations with Storm Internet regarding the terms and conditions.
In short, the County has not received any money from the Province yet. It is a type of project which engages more than 3 key stakeholders, 2 contracts, with many rules and deliverables, making it a challenging process. Consequently, a lot of work has to be done to ensure the contracts meet the County's requirements. Further to this, to keep costs down, construction of major towers will be planned for completion by the fall of 2010, as excavating costs in frozen ground are significantly more.
Why can't you guarantee that I will get service?
Answer:
Identifying dwellings that will receive service with 100% certainty is not possible until at least a major tower is constructed to service your area and if applicable, a micro-node to service your area as well.
Wireless Networks rely on towers with radios that transmit signals to radios installed onto dwellings (ex. Houses or businesses). The ability of a signal from one tower to reach a dwelling is dependent on distance between the tower and the dwelling and whether or not there are trees, hills or other topographical features in the way.
For example, a dwelling with a radio mounted 60 feet high trying to connect to a 60 foot tower with 5kms of 70 foot tall trees in the way will not likely be successful. However, if the distance is reduced, to say 1km, chances of connecting are more likely since the signal does not have to go through as much foliage. Or, if you raised the height of the tower to 80 feet and also the height of the radio mounted at the dwelling to 80 feet, you will not have any trees in the way you will more likely connect. So if you know the distance and obstruction density factors to each dwelling, you will be able to determine connectivity.
At this point in time, we currently have plans for where the towers will be but the locations will not be secured until later in the project. Therefore, the tower locations may change by some small margin. We will not know how far the radio propagations will cover due to foliage and topography until the towers are actually up and running. Finally, we will not know if your dwelling will be serviced until a site survey can be conducted which will determine the precisely the foliage and topography challenges in your area.
There is software being used to forecast tower propagations by entering various topography and tower locations but they are not 100%. However, they are being used to project how many towers we need and approximately where they need to be. Based on this information, we can indicate in general what areas will receive service (with some margin of error).
To summarize, the availability of service is very site specific and some residences may only need a small square antenna mounted on the house, others may need a short tripod on the roof and others a tower to elevate the antenna above the trees. It is difficult to determine exactly which residences will receive service until the towers have been built.
If I am interested in Storm high-speed internet, what is the process?
Answer:
When you contact Storm, indicate you are interested in subscribing to their wireless service, and that you have, or wish to fill out an application. Make sure you receive, from Storm, a ticket/request ID#. This ID# will be used whenever you contact Storm. An ID# also confirms that your place of residence is logged with Storm and awaiting further action.
Storm will then contact you to schedule a date when a site survey can be performed. If the site survey confirms that Storm wireless service can be successfully received at your location, then a quote will be created specifying costs for installation and wireless service.
You must give full approval for installation before Storm arranges an installation date.
What is the EORN project I keep hearing about?
Answer:
An Eastern Ontario Warden's Caucus (EOWC) is a group represented by the Wardens of 11 counties and Mayors of 2 Single-Tier municipalities in Eastern Ontario. Their purpose is to discuss issues of mutual importance and present findings to the federal and provincial governments, acting as a unified voice on behalf of their constituents. A EOWC news release announced a high-speed internet project that looks to provide 95% of citizens in South-eastern Ontario with access to 10 Mbps download speed at close to urban rates. This project is targeted for completion in 2013 with the resulting network being dubbed the Eastern Ontario Regional Network. The technology used would likely include a combination of wireless and wired technologies depending on the proposal provided by the selected vendor. High performance satellite would be options for the other 5% of citizens. Citizens will still need to pay for Internet access but this project will provide more options especially for citizens in rural areas.
The County expects the EORN project to be a very good complement to the Lanark County High-speed Internet Project. The County project will be providing citizens with a minimum 1.5 Mbps download speeds which is adequate for most residential and small business applications today (ex. Email, YouTube, sending and receiving photos etc.). EORN which is targeted for completion in 2013 will be providing 10 Mbps download speeds which will be adequate for large business, specialized applications and the demands of the future. In other words, both projects work together to address today's needs as well as those of the future.
For more information, regarding the EORN project please visit the project web-site at www.eorn.ca.
What relationship, if any, exists between the County and Storm?
Answer:
The County provides funds, received from the provincial government, which are to be applied specifically towards providing high speed service for those residents who currently have no service options available. The County does not dictate Storm's service package options and has no involvement is Storm's internal processes. Because Storm Internet is contributing 1.3 million dollars of their own money towards the project, Storm Internet is seen more as a partner in helping the community versus simply being a vendor of the County.
Overall, once the contract is signed, it is primarily Storm's project to deliver. However, the County may get involved in assisting with media releases and creating more awareness of the project at a high-level. Detailed schedules of installations are primarily handled by Storm Internet.
Who should I contact if I have more questions about this project?
Answer:
Since a contract has been signed with Storm, Storm is essentially in charge of delivering the project going forward and will be able to provide you with the most up to date information. You may contact Storm Internet directly by sending an email to support@storm.ca with the subject line 'Lanark Phase 2' or calling Toll-free at 1-866-257-8676 and asking for Support. Lanark County Municipal Staff will continue to meet with Storm on a monthly basis to ensure the project is progressing as planned.
The preference is email but obviously since the project's target audience may not have access to the internet, the toll-free number has been made available.
Appendix A - Typical Installation Diagrams
