Wireless internet set to cover 95 per cent of Harrington within 60 days

Wireless internet set to cover 95 per cent of Harrington within 60 days Dateline: HARRINGTON Tara Kirkpatrick After years spent waiting for the incessant drone of the beeping dial-up connection to end, Harrington residents will soon be able to put an end to the misery of slow internet connections and the lengthy task of sending and receiving e-mail attachments. Wireless point-to-point broadband internet provider Groupe Acces Communications has announced that within 60 days they will be able to provide high-speed internet capability to over 95 per cent of Harrington residents. "The Harrington council met with internet entrepreneurs to understand the impediments they face in bringing high-speed capability to our municipality," said Harrington Councillor Claude LaRoque. "Working with them, we realized that they had relatively simple needs we could help with. The determining factor was the ability to share the existing tower that we installed to relay wireless messages to our public works and emergency personnel. Using this tower, Groupe Acces will provide 80 per cent coverage of Harrington, and a second tower they installed in Lost River will provide an additional 15 per cent." The terrestrial line-of-sight technology means that if you can physically see the tower, chances are you can sign-up to receive the signal. Relay towers are installed in non-line-of-sight areas to relay the signal using small antennae about the size of a book. Installation for this service is not included with monthly service and costs about $199 or more depending on the necessity for a relay tower. "Some deep valleys or extreme tree cover will also prevent us from getting in," said Groupe Acces representative Marvin Garellek. According to Garellek, Groupe Acces now has about 1,000 clients in the Laurentians and covers about 50 communities. The company specializes in rural communities and deals with challenging, mountainous regions with topography that has a tendency to block communications signals and make cable-based service prohibitively expensive to install. The towers used by Groupe Acces measure between 65 and 75 feet and are mostly hidden by tree cover. The company has made it policy to use existing towers wherever possible, to reduce both cost and visibility. "We go into areas where the big incumbents are not and we serve the rural areas," said Garellek. "We're a private business and we're willing to work with companies and local government. The Municipal Regional Council of Argenteuil is working with us and helping to introduce us to their citizens. Tourism is down in the Pays-d'en-Haut region and according to MRC representatives, small business isn't setting up because of the lack of high speed." The entire Argenteuil region will be high-speed capable within nine to ten months, with the exception of some hard to reach areas. The municipalities of Gore, Wentworth and Lachute already have service and Brownsburg-Chatham residents will very soon be high-speed capable. Groupe Acces offers up to 3 megabits-per-second of data speed and offers three packages that vary in price, from $39 to $59 per month, plus the cost of installation. Friday, May 14, 2010