Water monitoring - Photo courtesy of TSAG

TSAG embarked on a 3-year infrastructure project in 2010 to bring high speed connectivity to all First Nation band administration offices and water treatment plants in Alberta.

We are pleased to announce that this project is not only on track to be completed on budget but is also an entire year ahead of schedule. Construction and light-up of the high speed fibre-optic connections are scheduled to be finished before the end of March 2012.

These connections allow communities to tap in to new economic, social and educational opportunities and take advantage of emerging technologies such as remote water quality monitoring solutions.

Instant access to water safety – Remote Water Monitoring

Remote water monitoring panel - Photo courtesy of TSAG

With the success of the SuperNet infrastructure project well ahead of schedule, getting water treatment plants connected for remote water monitoring is also moving along well.

Remote water monitoring is the ability to receive instant updates on the quality of the water located in First Nation water treatment plants. This revolutionary process, which uses a piece of equipment called a spectrolyser, continuously monitors water, detecting subtle changes in water quality and providing Water Plant Operators and TSAG Circuit Riders with real-time water quality data.

Remote water monitoring will:

• Increase the health and safety of potable drinking water in Alberta First Nations.
• Create an added level of security for water treatment facilities.
• Mitigate the risk of water contamination.
• Create alarms to alert Operators / CRTP trainers in the event something goes awry.
• Add features to assist in reporting and regular maintenance.

Do you have a story to share about how Alberta’s SuperNet is being used to enable Healthcare in your community? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Do you have a story to share about how Alberta’s SuperNet is being used to enable Healthcare in your community? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Do you have a story to share about how Alberta’s SuperNet is being used in your community? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

From the latest must-have gadget (4 million iPhone 4S units were sold in the first three days it was on the market and yes, I have one) to the hottest user-created YouTube content (everything from Rebecca Black’s “Friday” to the cutest babies and cuddliest kittens imaginable), we’ve definitely demonstrated that we like our gadgets and we like sharing our lives online!

Smart phone apps like Instagram racked up millions of users in just a few months, and the amount of content we produce and share online has skyrocketed.

G+ has published an infographic showing some of the top tech trends of 2011. A few interesting ones to note:

• Foursquare, a popular geolocation app, has seen a 1000% increase growth in users.
• 83% of American executives watch more online video today than they did a year ago.
• Marketers are turning to mobile photo sharing apps as a powerful way to increase brand awareness.

All of these trends have one thing in common; they rely on access to broadband.  Here’s the full infographic:

Here in Alberta, we’ve seen a marked increase in the demand for bigger bandwidth pipes over Alberta’s SuperNet, as organizations move towards relocating their computing power to the cloud, create and consume ever-increasing amounts of multimedia content, and connect with friends and colleagues around the world.

It makes you wonder how many of us made the resolution in 2011 to share more online. We’re excited to see what 2012 brings.  Have a healthy and happy New Year, everyone!

Do you have a story about how SuperNet is being used in your community? We’d love to hear it, please  leave a comment on this post.

In hopes of providing clear and precise information to all interested parties, the following Q&A are my responses to the most common questions I’ve had come my way.

I hope you find my response useful.

Who is Axia Connect?

Axia Connect Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Axia NetMedia Corporation. Axia Connect Ltd. and Axia SuperNet Ltd., another Axia subsidiary, each play specific roles in delivering broadband to rural areas:

Axia SuperNet Ltd.

• Provides services directly to the Government of Alberta (GoA), including Libraries, Schools, Health and Municipalities.
• Provides open access services at all the EAN Points of Presence (PoPs) on SuperNet to Service Providers, including resellers to the consumer & business markets and enterprise customers who want to buy Axia services over SuperNet for their own use.

Axia Connect Ltd.

• Does not resell services over SuperNet, nor does it offer applications such as VoIP, hosting, web services, mobility and video services.
• Makes connectivity possible by bringing anyone who wishes to buy bandwidth services directly to SuperNet.  Once at the SuperNet PoP, these companies can buy bandwidth and value-added services like VoIP and hosting from any Service Provider who has access to SuperNet via Meet-Me Centres in Calgary and Edmonton.

Why is Axia Connect selling an Internet Gateway Service?

Axia believes that the current Internet Gateway market in Alberta is dysfunctional.  ISPs in Alberta are paying an average wholesale price of over $40/Mbps. This artificially high price has created an environment where ISPs cannot provide a high quality of experience and increased broadband usage on the SuperNet. With its Internet Gateway Service, Axia will provide urban wholesale pricing to ISPs in rural areas throughout Alberta on a sustainable market-driven basis.

Isn’t Axia Connect competing against Service Providers?

Axia is bringing an Internet Gateway Service to the SuperNet and making it available to all SuperNet Service Providers.  Axia Connect is not reselling any SuperNet bandwidth to end customers, nor is it going after the retail and business markets.  Large enterprise customers who wish to become Service Providers for their own sites have access to the wholesale Internet Gateway pricing.

Axia is offering to its GoA customers a retail price of $14/Mbps on the SuperNet, but it must be purchased through one of the 83 Service Providers on SuperNet.  The Internet Gateway Service is not a condition of offering services over SuperNet; if a provider can negotiate a better rate or offer their own value-added services to the Government, they are able to do so.

The pricing introduced by Axia is simply to provide better pricing to Service Providers and Government customers for better services to Albertans.

I am an Internet Gateway Provider: isn’t Axia competing with me because it offers Internet Gateway services?

As the operator of the SuperNet, Axia ensures it does not compete with service resellers over the SuperNet.  With Internet Gateway services, Axia Connect Ltd. brings a wholesale service to the SuperNet for all Service Providers to take advantage of.  This may put Axia in competition with other Gateway providers (primarily the incumbent carriers) who sell to Service Providers, but we are not selling Internet services directly to end users.

Aren’t you bypassing the providers that are using SuperNet today to deliver services to Government customers?

In fact, Axia Connect is preserving the SuperNet Service Provider value chain by obligating Public Sector end users to purchase Internet from SuperNet Service Providers. The current telco model has the large carriers starting to offer these Gateway services in Alberta.  In our international operations, we see prices in Seattle, New York and Boston as low as $.99/Mbps.  We are offering it at a reasonable cost to transport people back to the major exchanges in Seattle and Toronto.

The service is available at the Calgary Meet-Me Facility#1 on the Service Provider side, meaning no SuperNet facilities are used to deliver this service, and Axia has made it available to all Service Providers.

Is Axia Connect bypassing Service Providers by connecting large enterprise customers to the SuperNet?

These enterprise customers are looking for fibre infrastructure from their facilities in remote areas back to SuperNet.  Once connected, the companies purchase SuperNet bandwidth at the same rate as any other Service Provider to connect back to the Meet-Me Centre, where they have the choice of over 25 providers who offer services ranging from VoIP providers to hosting companies.

Since Axia is a for-profit company, aren’t they just in it for the money?

Axia won the right to sell fibre-enabled services to private sector customers and the Government of Alberta over the SuperNet through a competitive RFP process. Axia’s value proposition of high performance for lower cost is aligned with customer requirements based on productivity and cost efficiency.  In addition to this, Axia is actively bringing new enterprise customers to our network, growing our private sector business and refreshing electronics to ensure that we continue to have a state-of-the-art network available for use by our existing and potential new customers, today and beyond.

How does the Internet Gateway Service fit into the contract that Axia has with the Alberta Government to operate the SuperNet?

The SuperNet agreements between the Government of Alberta, Bell Canada and Axia SuperNet Ltd. were put in place to establish an IP network infrastructure for Alberta.  The intent of the network is to promote competition, promote rural development and ensure affordable and timely services are available to the GoA and its ministries, as well as to Alberta communities.

As part of this agreement, Axia is obligated to make sure services are reasonably priced and to eliminate the disparity in cost between rural and urban Alberta.

Axia committed to two fundamental obligations as part of the agreements:

• Axia SuperNet Ltd. is precluded from selling services to Axia or an affiliate of Axia.
• Axia SuperNet Ltd. cannot sell services over SuperNet from a Base Area Network community to another Base Area Network community (aside from connecting Public Sector customers).

Axia will continue to honour its contractual commitments to the Government of Alberta relative to SuperNet, while continually seeking to innovate, promote competition and ensure a powerful and sustainable value chain.

How much does the Internet Gateway Service cost?

All Service Providers connected to the SuperNet can purchase Axia Connect’s Internet Gateway Service for a flat wholesale rate of $9/Mbps/month plus an initial installation fee of $1,500.

At this time, the Gateway service is only available in Calgary.  The $9/Mbps does not include transport or local access fees between a customer site and the Axia Connect Internet Gateway Service.

Why is the price so low compared to other Gateway Providers?

This price is already available in the market today from other Gateway Providers. However, it is not available to all Internet Service Providers on a wholesale basis.  Axia brings that price to the majority of providers on SuperNet who do not have the volume to negotiate these rates to ensure they remain competitive.

Are there monthly usage charges with the Internet Gateway Service?

No, this is a flat rate service. You only pay $9/Mbps/month.

Why is there a $14/Mbps price cap for Providers to resell Internet Gateway services to Public Sector end users?

Axia is protecting the ISP value chain by encouraging the Public Sector to purchase from the ISPs while ensuring that the Public Sector still benefits from a new lower market price. The capped price is still considerably lower than what is commonly available now in Alberta.

As part of the SuperNet procurement process, the GoA wanted a network operator to deliver services directly to their premises, including the local access.  Axia won that RFP and is meeting its contractual obligations to deliver broadband to its customers, and to ensure there are competitive services to choose from on SuperNet.

If public sector customers want to buy Gateway services, they must use a Service Provider of their choice to do so.  If they want to use other providers who use other networks to provide Gateway services, they are free to do so.