To comment on the recent article of rural high speed, I ask this question. Could you imagine what would happen to the TV satellite company if you regularly only got half of the channels you paid for, unless you did all your viewing at 3 a.m.? People would be outraged and calling the Better Business Bureau.
This scenario sums up rural internet in Saskatchewan or particularly those that subscribe to “higher-speed” satellite internet from SaskTel (Xplornet).
The article on rural high speed in the Dec. 16 issue expressed many points about the quality of service in rural areas. Compared to the options in the cities, rural internet is lackluster to say the least. People that buy the satellite option for their internet think they are being sold high speed just like their city cousins. As soon as the family starts hitting all the popular sites to download stuff, it’s only then do you realize what you really have.
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Because of their Fair Access Policy, your downloads are limited to 88 MB per hour, after which you will be throttled back to dial-up speeds for an hour until it resets. Upload speed is at 8.8 MB per hour. It basically shuts down any internet use and only affects SaskTel satellite users.
There are many SaskTel cell towers that could have incorporated wireless internet systems in them when they were built to offer as many services from the towers as possible. This may have offered some form of internet that rivaled basic high speed in the cities.
I guess the next option for most rural users is to hope that your area gets 3G cell coverage and see if that gives you decent internet. In my mind it’s like power and telephones in the rural areas, we’ve all come to expect it.
Dwane Morvik,Eastend, Sask.
