The Alberta SuperNet

[Azure]

I've known about this for quite a while now, but only recently read some more details about it. Really, a noteworthy project that the Alberta government started up almost 5 years ago that today has fiber in 80% of the province.

Alberta SuperNet is a broadband network linking approximately 4,200 government, health, library and education facilities in 429 communities across the province at affordable and sustainable costs to the Government of Alberta. Additionally, Alberta SuperNet creates a competitive market for the delivery of broadband services by private Internet service providers throughout the province to rural retail customers. Alberta SuperNet is comprised of a Base Area Network, constructed, owned and operated by Bell in 27 of Alberta's largest communities. The Extended Area Network is comprised of 402 communities in rural Alberta. For more information, visit www.albertasupernet.ca

http://www.gov.ab.ca/acn/200509/1882...C2E0424EF.html

Reason I brought this up was because the other day I was reading an old thread on Digital Home about the future of the internet. A lot of people felt that in 3-5 years, the existing infrastructure throughout the country wouldn't be able to handle the demand for fast, reliable internet. Yet, our entire province is how wired with fiber, which is more than likely a first in Canada, if not in the US.

Sure, it cost around $400 million in the end, but to me its money well spent, and something that probably is known by a lot of people.

I don't know the technical details about how Shaw and Telus connect to the existing fiber network....but I would imagine it has something to do with the speed increases in Alberta.

[Tower]

Originally Posted by Azure

I've known about this for quite a while now, but only recently read some more details about it. Really, a noteworthy project that the Alberta government started up almost 5 years ago that today has fiber in 80% of the province.



http://www.gov.ab.ca/acn/200509/1882...C2E0424EF.html

Reason I brought this up was because the other day I was reading an old thread on Digital Home about the future of the internet. A lot of people felt that in 3-5 years, the existing infrastructure throughout the country wouldn't be able to handle the demand for fast, reliable internet. Yet, our entire province is how wired with fiber, which is more than likely a first in Canada, if not in the US.

Sure, it cost around $400 million in the end, but to me its money well spent, and something that probably is known by a lot of people.

I don't know the technical details about how Shaw and Telus connect to the existing fiber network....but I would imagine it has something to do with the speed increases in Alberta.

The Alberta government put up the job for the companies to bid and Bell won. It ended up costing WAY more than Bell thought it would and if I remember correctly they lost money on the contract as well. It also took years longer to build than anticipated and became a waste of a project. This is all from memory but my ex-father in law worked on this project for years.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Tower

The Alberta government put up the job for the companies to bid and Bell won. It ended up costing WAY more than Bell thought it would and if I remember correctly they lost money on the contract as well. It also took years longer to build than anticipated and became a waste of a project. This is all from memory but my ex-father in law worked on this project for years.

And yet now we have almost the entire province wired with fiber, and every single public building connected by a fast and reliable network.

Waste of a project?

I did a search before I posted this, and read through some of the old threads. Someone posted a link about a year ago about 'internet coverage province/state wide.' Alberta was an anomaly. Almost our entire province has broadband internet, while other provinces have zones with nothing except dialup or satellite. Reason? Well, I know that Platinum Communications, probably the #1 reason there is internet all over rural Alberta is tied directly into the SuperNet.

I wouldn't call it a waste. 10 years from now it won't be a waste.

[Russic]

My sister in law works in this field. What Alberta has done is nothing short of astounding. Our rural areas are so far above the rest of rural Canada it's insane.

We have a friend in bc that works in this kind of field and he claims the rest of Canada is foaming at the mouth to do what we've done.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Azure

I've known about this for quite a while now, but only recently read some more details about it. Really, a noteworthy project that the Alberta government started up almost 5 years ago that today has fiber in 80% of the province.



http://www.gov.ab.ca/acn/200509/1882...C2E0424EF.html

Reason I brought this up was because the other day I was reading an old thread on Digital Home about the future of the internet. A lot of people felt that in 3-5 years, the existing infrastructure throughout the country wouldn't be able to handle the demand for fast, reliable internet. Yet, our entire province is how wired with fiber, which is more than likely a first in Canada, if not in the US.

Sure, it cost around $400 million in the end, but to me its money well spent, and something that probably is known by a lot of people.

I don't know the technical details about how Shaw and Telus connect to the existing fiber network....but I would imagine it has something to do with the speed increases in Alberta.

Alberta Supernet is a huge boon for rural Alberta, but I don't think this has any bearing on speeds for Shaw or Telus subscribers who are in the city. Supernet runs as a regional network that uses Shaw's bigpipe to connect to the internet backbone.

If Shaw is considered a Tier 2 regional provider ( no idea if is is ), the supernet would be considered Tier 3 and would only affect local traffic access (ie you were accessing a host on that netowrk).

This is based on my usage and experience when I used wireless when I lived outside of Calgary, but may not universallly reflect the entire SuperNet infrastructure.

[psicodude]

I work for a major school board here in Alberta, and I cannot fully explain how huge of a difference the SuperNet has made to our schools. Before it existed, our schools were either on 128k ISDN or 512k DSL lines, and it was a gong show. Forget internet traffic, just logging onto the domain and accessing email was a challenge. We now have a 20mb connection to smaller schools, and a 50mb connection to high schools. Things like voip, video conferencing, and a whole host of new applications are now happening thanks entirely to the SuperNet.

Our internet usage is now just over 200GB in an 8 hour day, with the bottle neck being our web filtering appliance. The word "astounding" barely does this project justice, IMO.

[Tower]

Originally Posted by Azure

And yet now we have almost the entire province wired with fiber, and every single public building connected by a fast and reliable network.

Waste of a project?

I did a search before I posted this, and read through some of the old threads. Someone posted a link about a year ago about 'internet coverage province/state wide.' Alberta was an anomaly. Almost our entire province has broadband internet, while other provinces have zones with nothing except dialup or satellite. Reason? Well, I know that Platinum Communications, probably the #1 reason there is internet all over rural Alberta is tied directly into the SuperNet.

I wouldn't call it a waste. 10 years from now it won't be a waste.

This was from his mouth. The basis was on satellite tech and microwave usage. The money it cost to build the project vs other technologies. But I am spewing things an engineer talked to me about who again built and designed parts of the project.

[Azure]

I remember when I was still in high school, they were just beginning to use video conferencing for classes. Now, according to an article I read in the local paper, its become possible for courses to be offered province wide, regardless of how many students the particular school has, or how much funding it gets.

Suddenly a whole slew of options have been opened up to numerous students all over Alberta to take advantage of something that wasn't available to them before.

The whole health care system in Alberta is now on the same network.....our library system is probably one of the best in the world in terms of availability. And many of us don't even know how the government has been able to benefit from something like this. Just incredible.

The world 'astounding' does BARELY do this project justice. Alberta is years ahead of everyone else with this.

I laugh in the face of the government of Sask, as they have a press conference to announce a project to bring internet to 100% of the province. How? With cell phone towers and fixed wireless equipment. Only the northern most part of Alberta gets that kind of service, and we all know what kind of people live up there.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Tower

This was from his mouth. The basis was on satellite tech and microwave usage. The money it cost to build the project vs other technologies. But I am spewing things an engineer talked to me about who again built and designed parts of the project.

Basis of what?

The new fixed wireless systems, which power most of the rural internet in Alberta, are capable of up to 300mbps. Why? Because of the SuperNet.

Not saying that you don't know what you're talking about. I just don't see how this project has been a waste.

[jammies]

I know a few customers who use Supernet out at rural offices or campuses, it's definitely a big advantage to have that kind of high-bandwidth connectivity out there and available province-wide. It is the kind of infrastructure project that really is a good use of tax dollars, as it can be a huge competitive advantage for Alberta business and also for the educational system.

I know Olds College, for example, has recently hooked up hi-def video conferencing from their main campus out to their satellite campuses and to other schools using the Supernet, which can run multiple 1.4 mb streams simultaneously without issues. I also know a company that is seriously considering having a backup server farm in Acme, of all places, just because Supernet is available and there is oodles of reliable bandwidth just waiting for people to use it.

[Buff]

Without SuperNet there would be far less schools and libraries in the small towns in Alberta. Many of them would have closed up shop. SuperNet brings so many more services to the schools and libraries. There is currently a video conferencing project that will see about 80 libraries in Southern Alberta (from Coutts to Trochu, from Crowsnest Pass to Oyen to) have video conferencing equipment in each library. The video conferencing equipment can be used by anybody to meet with anybody else who has access to video conferencing.

Imagine Farmer Joe's son, Billy can go to school and use the internet during school for research. He can go to the library and use high speed internet to email or chat with his cousins in Montreal, or use the video conferencing to have a job interview with a company in Texas, or to talk with somebody about schooling at Harvard, etc. Without supernet Billy would probably have dial-up at home, if he is lucky, and not have the ease of access to all these services.

What about the health industry? Doctors use VC to watch a surgery to learn new techniques or to help guide a doctor through a tricky procedure.

Schools and libraries get together to share an internet gateway connection through supernet to cut operational costs so they can allocate the saved money to keep staff or materieals needed to run the schools and libraries.

If there is anything about SuperNet that is a waste is that it is taken for granted. SuperNet users forget that just 6 short years ago there was a frustration with they way the used technology to keep connected. SuperNet makes it so much more simple.

[LChoy]

From the Health persepective, we are bringing in more and more tele-health (Internet) services to the more rural and remote parts of our province. In the Wood Buffalo region, we have patients that will be able to video conference with specialists in Edmonton and/or send in real time data from MRI's/CT... for specialists to review. This really helps with the lack of specialist health care up in the North.
The other major project is hooking up all doctors and healthcare services with a common electronic record. In theory once it's finished, you can go to any physician or health care worker, and they'll be able to pull up your medical records. Further, it is hoped that there would be flags built in, so that the system could learn to identify patients for follow up. Ex. If you were diabetic, your blood tests could trigger a note to your Family GP to refer you to a diabetic dietitian. Supernet has made things better

*steps off of the AHW soapbox

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Azure

I did a search before I posted this, and read through some of the old threads. Someone posted a link about a year ago about 'internet coverage province/state wide.' Alberta was an anomaly. Almost our entire province has broadband internet, while other provinces have zones with nothing except dialup or satellite. Reason? Well, I know that Platinum Communications, probably the #1 reason there is internet all over rural Alberta is tied directly into the SuperNet.

do you have a link to that link? I'd love to read it.

Anyway, the building of this frustrated the heck out of one of my company's stores for the longest time, as they extended the Supernet into their town just far enough to reach the high school. Our store was literally across the street, but couldn't get high speed because it stopped on the other side of the road. Given how rural the community is (nearly 100k NW of Grande Prairie), they were stuck with this horrible wireless connection that makes a 128k ISDN look blazing fast.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

do you have a link to that link? I'd love to read it.

Anyway, the building of this frustrated the heck out of one of my company's stores for the longest time, as they extended the Supernet into their town just far enough to reach the high school. Our store was literally across the street, but couldn't get high speed because it stopped on the other side of the road. Given how rural the community is (nearly 100k NW of Grande Prairie), they were stuck with this horrible wireless connection that makes a 128k ISDN look blazing fast.

The Supernet isn't an ISP. It is a high speed network for government, schools, libraries, health etc. That being said, those locations can get an ISP gateway through their Supernet connection. Axia, who manages Supernet, doesn't provide you with that gateway, you have to go with an alternative provider such as Shaw, Telus, Platinum etc.

[Jedi Ninja]

I've heard Saskatchewan people claim that residential high speed internet service is actually more widely available in Saskatchewan?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Buff

The Supernet isn't an ISP. It is a high speed network for government, schools, libraries, health etc. That being said, those locations can get an ISP gateway through their Supernet connection. Axia, who manages Supernet, doesn't provide you with that gateway, you have to go with an alternative provider such as Shaw, Telus, Platinum etc.

I'm aware of that... sorry, my point was more that the store was lamenting that the school across the street had this awesome network, while they would have been better off sending smoke signals to transfer data.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

I've heard Saskatchewan people claim that residential high speed internet service is actually more widely available in Saskatchewan?

I wonder.

Sure, they might have a plan to get high speed internet all over the province, but its through cell towers and the like.

A lot of the internet providers like Platinum, JRTwave, etc, etc are using the SuperNet to gain access to the internet.

I know Platinum has over 8,000 customers already. Haven't seen their map though, so I don't really know how much coverage they have. IIRC, according to the original contract that Bell signed, other ISPs had 3-5 years to provide high speed to as much of rural Alberta that they could, and after that, Bell was obligated to make sure every part of Alberta had access to high speed internet.

[Azure]

Articles talking about WIMAX, and how the SuperNet has brought internet to rural Albertans.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...na.html?page=1

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

do you have a link to that link? I'd love to read it.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...berta+Supernet

I have tried searching, but haven't been able to find a map. Thing is, I recall looking at one about a year ago. It showed 3G coverage in Alberta, and compared it to WIMAX coverage. It was almost the same.

So, to take a look at our 3G coverage.....

http://www.telusmobility.com/ab/coverage/pcs_home.shtml

Pretty cool.

The only areas WIMAX or other rural providers haven't covered still have access to the SuperNet.

[Barnes]

This is just as big as the rural electrification projects of the '30s except most don't recognize the importance.