Note: this is a comparison of publicly available information.

One of our competitors uses Trango 900MHz equipment for client connections. If you visit Trango's website you will find that the bandwidth capability of this hardware is quite low. The tradeoff is that it can penetrate more trees because of the longer wavelength of the signal. This type of hardware would usually be used as a secondary solution where a line of sight to an access point cannot be achieved due to too trees. The problem is the amount of signal the trees absorb changes with the seasons and this can introduce problems if there is not enough signal to survive this seasonal fading.

Another competitor advertises on their web site "you don't have to worry about changing speeds due to clarity of cables or how many users there are in your neighbourhood." However, if you look at their own 'how it works' page, you will see how everyone that is in the same general direction out from their tower is sharing the same access point so your speed will change based on how many other users are pointing at the same access point as you are. An additional quote from their web site "There are no cable to restrict your speeds and you have your very own dedicated connection". Again look at their own 'how it works' page and you will see that you do not get a dedicated connection, you share the connection at the access point with everyone else that is in the same general direction from their tower. The company advertises speeds of 4Mbps at the basic level, and even up to 14Mbps if you are close enough to the tower. (We won't even go into how most places on the internet cannot deliver even close to that to you anyway.) If you look up the specs for the Canopy hardware, which they tell you they are using, on Motorola's web site, it clearly states that the canopy can deliver up to 14Mbps to a single user (at close range). That user is then consuming 100% of the access point's capacity leaving nothing for anyone else. Worse yet, when a 4Mbps customer that is more than 20km out from the antenna is using the full 4Mbps that is causing the access point to slow down and talk at that rate, due to the distance, again this uses up 100% of the capacity of the access point for a single user.

Another competitor sells "unlimited use" connections at 10 times our residential data rates. From what we have heard they have note been able to deliver the promised data rates. Secondly, every major provider has gone through the "unlimited" game before, and NONE of them provide unlimited connections any more. It is simply not a sustainable business practice.


OK then, what's different about your service.

No Contract. We do not tie you in with a 2 or 3 year contract. If you truly are not happy with the service, and we have not been able to satisfy you, then cancel the service. (This has never happened yet.) We will not force you to 'buy out' the rest of a contract.

In our system, the radio link to our clients is capable of much more speed than we actually give you. The hardware we use can make connections as far as 144km away (in a direct point to point configuration with large antennas). In our point to multi-point (access point) config we could do up to 36km at the lowest speed. We however do not connect clients that are too far away as they would cripple the capacity of the system for other users. Most of our client's radio connections are higher than 24Mbps, many at 54Mbps. Some of our small sites have only one access antenna, others have more. We base this on the number of clients in a particular area. If we need more capacity in a given area we add another access antenna.

We are also working on some new equipment that can work in conjunction with our existing equipment that should allow us to provide service to people who are relatively close to one of access points, but cannot get line of sight. While this is currently in testing it looks promising and we will provide more information here when it becomes available.

We plainly show you where we have service available with maps and pictures of the site. We don't force you to submit a form just to find out that we don't have any service near you anyway.

In general, selling you a rated speed is one thing, actually providing it is another. In our basic residential type service we tell you 512k, but you get bursts much higher than that for relatively short periods of time. When the system sees that you are drawing more than you are allotted, it will over about a half minute, reduce your speed to the alloted rate. We actually provide you with our specified bandwidth most of the time.

The Internet Service Provider industry is on a slow path towards a 'User Pay' system. In the current system 20% of the users are using 80% of the bandwidth, and yet everyone pays the same. As these changes work their way through the industry in the coming years we will all see big changes in the way you pay for the data sent over an internet connection. Good, bad or indifferent, it is coming. The only real question is: How soon?

If you live in an area where we provide service, go talk to our existing clients, I am sure they will tell you about the reliability of our service.