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Tag Archives high speed Internet

An apt symbol of rural internet? An internet tower perched on an old wooden grain elevator in Onoway, Alta.
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Pandemic pushes rural internet speeds to the breaking point

Notoriously slow already, rural internet has struggled with increased demand during the pandemic — and that isn’t likely to change any time soon

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The internet on Monika Benoit’s northern Alberta farm was bad enough before the pandemic. Now it’s almost “non-existent.” “We sigh a lot,” said Benoit, who farms with husband Mike near High Prairie. “Even when there’s not a pandemic, we have internet issues. But with the isolation and social distancing protocols we’re supposed to be following, […] Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic is underscoring the importance of reliable high-speed internet, something that is lacking in many rural areas.
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Rationing internet a pandemic side-effect

Streaming a dream in rural Alberta as download speeds slow to a trickle

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The pandemic has created an unwelcome blast from the past for rural Albertans dealing with internet speeds not seen since the days of dial-up. “I can see downtown Calgary from my window right now, and I feel like I’m in the sticks,” said Shelagh Blatz, who lives near Priddis. “I’m so close to Calgary, but […] Read more
You don’t see a lot of internet towers in rural Canada — which is why high-speed broadband is rare, too. The CRTC had promised to change that, but recently it quietly halved the speeds required to tap into a $750-million fund aimed at bringing fast internet to underserved parts of the country.
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Fast internet? An urban reality but a rural myth

The CRTC has cut its rural internet speed targets in half — calling it ‘a significant first step’

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It’s an issue that big-city bureaucrats can’t seem to wrap their heads around — an internet connection spread so thin that it’s nearly unusable during peak hours. But in rural Alberta, it’s an all-too-common problem. “The connection gets weaker and weaker the further you get away from the main corridor,” said Al Kemmere, president of […] Read more
Xplornet’s Chris Johnston says high-speed broadband will be available to all of rural Canada by July 2017 following tower upgrades and the launch of next-generation satellites like the ViaSat-2.
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Digital divide set to fall?

Company says all of rural Canada will have access to high speed by July 2017

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There finally appears to be light at the end of the tunnel for rural Canadians fed up with slow, inconsistent, or unavailable Internet service. New Brunswick-based Xplornet Communications recently announced it will offer high-speed, 25-megabytes-per-second (mbps) Internet service to all Canadians by July 2017, a move that may finally destroy the urban-rural digital divide. “To […] Read more

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