BARRHEAD - MCSnet is unrolling a new technology, and they hope Barrhead residents, including the town, will help them implement it.
On Aug. 8, MCSnet business development manager Kevin Bernhardt told Town of Barrhead councillors about their new GigAir service.
Specifically, he floated the idea that the company could install hardware at the Barrhead Agrena, which would help them improve their in-town coverage.
MCSnet is an Alberta-based Internet service provider (ISP) specializing in serving rural communities. Currently, the provider services several rural communities in a 300-kilometre radius from their St. Paul base throughout northeastern Alberta and northwestern Saskatchewan.
Bernhardt said one thing that differentiates MCSnet from other providers is that they provide high-speed broadband service entirely via wireless.
"That is the approach the company has taken from the start, more than 20 years ago and what we are still doing today. We are not about connecting homes with fibre," he said.
However, he admitted they have approximately 1,600 kilometres of "transit fibre" to connect many of their 540 towers.
"This speeds up service to what we call "fixed-wireless" customers connected via towers and makes us future-ready because whatever is coming will be related to fibre," he said, adding this summer, they are adding another 400 kilometres of transit fibre to connect even more of their towers.
This is primarily, Bernhardt said, due to the rollout of their GigAir service.
He explained that using GigAir, MCSnet can deliver fibre-like Internet speeds from a tower.
"This is because it uses a 60 Ghz wavelength," he said, adding the signal travels from the tower to a point-of-presence (POP) building and serves as the point of contact between the community and the tower.
The maximum distance a POP can be from the tower is two-kilometres.
But Bernhardt noted the system has limitations, saying that while the 60 GHz frequency gives them the ability to offer blazing fast speed, the wavelength's range is suspect and has very little penetration.
"It won't make it through a row of trees beside your house," he said.
To get around that, MCSnet hopes to build a mesh-like network in each community, using their customers, each with a radio transmitter and antenna, as a relay station. Each transmitter needs to be within 200 metres of each other. For optimum service, GigAir needs multiple strategically placed POPs.
Bernhardt said they could create such a network reasonably quickly, noting that they completed it in about 10 days in the Town of Mundare.
He also noted that the radios are designed to self-heal, saying if one of the transmitters "dropped out," it would connect to the next transmitter with the best signal.
As for how MCSnet determines what buildings in a community would make a good POP, Bernhardt said that in addition to being within the two-kilometre zone of a tower, one that is strategically located, with good lines of sight to several residences or businesses within proximity of each other are things that they look for.
He specifically pointed to the Blue Heron Support Services Association (BHSSA) and the Agrena as having good potential, as both have good height, which helps for line-of-sight, and they are centrally located.
To help build the GigAir network, MCSnet will offer free upgrades to their 39 fixed-point service to the faster GigAir.
Bernhardt also noted that when looking for potential POPs, they try to partner with municipalities and not-for-profit organizations, offering them free Internet hotspot service in exchange for housing their equipment.
He reiterated that MCSnet's tech department identified the Agrena as an almost ideal POP, asking if the municipality would consider allowing them to use the facility.
In turn, he said, they would provide public hot spot service for the town's recreation facilities, i.e. Agrena, swimming pool, curling rink, and potentially the Seniors' Drop-in Centre, as well as a separate one for recreation staff.
CAO Edward LeBlanc noted that the municipality was in the process of installing a public hotspot through another Internet provider at the Agrena, swimming pool and curling rink, noting they made the arrangements in the fall.
However, he added that the municipality had made similar partnerships with other communications companies and was open to doing so again and would pass on MCSnet's request to their IT team.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
