Arden_High_Speed_Plan

Jeff Green | Feb 10, 2005

Feature article February 17, 2005

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Arden to be the site of Broadband Pilot Project

by Jeff Green

The province of Ontario will be paying $15,000 to put in a satellite-based High Speed Internet service at the Arden Branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library.

In the next few weeks a satellite receiver will be installed at the Municipal Garage in Arden, and the signal will be sent to a small box on the roof of the Kennebec Community Centre where the Arden Library is located. The library will have high speed internet service available for its patrons and for its own administrative use. The service will also be available in the Arden area and vicinity, to businesses and individuals located within a 6-10 km radius of the municipal garage in Arden.

The project involves many partners. The Land O Lakes Communications Network will act as Community Champion for the project. They were contacted last fall by a consulting firm working for the provincial government. The province has been interested in web- based service delivery and the consultants are looking at this in a rural context, and at developing information about the impact of high speed access on rural economic and community life.

The government was looking for a site that was not likely to be getting high speed Internet any time soon through other means, and one that had a library. We talked about various possibilities in the Land O Lakes and settled on Arden, said Jim MacPherson of the Land O Lakes Communications Network.

RAMTelecom will be providing the satellite backbone for the project and Internet Horizons has come on board as a service provider for the project, which also involved the Township of Central Frontenac and the library.

Land O Lakes Communications Network will be involved in setting up demonstrations of the service at various locations using a wireless radio that will be provided to them by Internet Horizons, and Internet Horizons will be the commercial partner who will put together sales packages and market the service to the public and business community.

The $15,000 necessary to bring this project about will be provided by the Management Board of the provincial government, in cooperation with several other Ministries.

The project was presented to the Central Frontenac Council this Tuesday for approval. The Land O Lakes Communications Network will be considering it at a Board meeting this week, and the Management Board of the Ontario government is expected to approve it within the next few weeks.

The project will be a shot in the arm for the Arden Library, which received much community support last spring when a Library Consultant recommended it be slated for closure.

That aspect of the consultants final report was not accepted as written by the Library Board this fall.