Test pilots for "last mile solution".

• Author: HUHTALA, SARI
• Position: Wireless high-speed communications to be tested in Capreol, Canada - Brief Article

Wireless broadband high-speed technology may someday be deemed as the "saviour" in bridging the telecommunications gap in the North.

Over the next few months, Capreol, located about 30 kilometres northeast of Sudbury, will become the site of an experimental project to determine the viability of a wireless communications link using a broadband signal transmitted through a fibre optic network.

"Individual residents would have high-speed connection into the home and as a result have the ability to develop applications that up to now have only, been possible, by those who have access to a fibre optic network," says Paul Tosolini, executive director for Broadband Wireless Multimedia (BWM) Group and TECNorth.

A few years ago, the Town of Capreol laid the groundwork to make this type of project possible by establishing a fibre optic network, which runs by the curbside, in the town, he explains. The "last mile solution" will connect homes to the fibre optic network via a broadband signal transmitted from a hub antenna (the Sudhury Hydro fibre optic network) to an antenna located in the home.

BWM Group and TECNorth, and Contact North/Contact Nord, in partnership with the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology and local post-secondary institutions developed the project as an initiative aimed at exploring communications' options in the unique geographic' and climatic environment of the North, he adds.

"The telecommunications landscape in Northern Ontario is poor compared to other regions of Ontario," Tosolini says. "In Ontario, a lot of the small remote communities don't have access to wireless communications because of their locale. This could be a saviour for them."

This technology will enable a business in a small northern. community to compete withurban counterparts and potentially improve northern economy, he says. Partners involved in the project are convinced the wireless communications link will lead to increased employment opportunities in small communities by enabling businesses in these areas to compete with their urban counterparts, he notes.

By making broadband speed available to the "mass population," rather than merely concentrating on institutions and businesses, one is providing windows of opportunity for individuals to develop, expand and market ideas globally.

"This new tool has the capacity to help attract or retain youth in the North because it provides high speed access directly into the home,' Tosolini said. "Applications...