MADGE LAKE, Sask. – Every once in a while, Doug Bear is reminded how bad his internet service is.
Last winter, while visiting his daughter in Hawaii, he sat down by the pool with her lap top computer, found a wireless internet connection and priced canola.
It was the fastest and easiest grain pricing he had ever done.
“It was a lot quicker than doing it at home,” said Bear, who farms at Veregin, Sask., but lives in Madge Lake, a small community in Duck Mountain Provincial Park near the Manitoba border.
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With its rolling hills, lakes and towering spruce trees, getting high speed internet is almost impossible. Line of sight wireless connections using internet towers are not possible and connecting to a satellite is not a guarantee of service. Most farms and residents are left with dial up service.
Few agriculture websites are designed with dial up users in mind. Flashy graphics, large pictures and links to other websites are slow to load.
Each morning before breakfast, Bear starts downloading a daily market and news report to read with his coffee. Sometimes he’s on his second cup before he’s able to read the simple newsletter.
It can take 15 minutes to log onto the Bunge website if he’s thinking about pricing canola.
“We have to learn to be patient,” said Bear, who prices about 90 percent of his canola on the internet.
He recently discovered that his internet connection is worse than what’s available in Costa Rica.
A trip to the small Central American country had sparked interest in buying property there and eventually resulted in a telephone conversation with a Costa Rican realtor. The realtor wanted to show Bear photos of the property on a website while they talked on the phone, but Bear had to explain he couldn’t talk on the telephone and look at the internet at the same time.
“I always considered Canada to be more advanced than Costa Rica, but obviously not in everything.”
Andy Blundell, manager of Communities Without Boundaries, an Alberta coalition advocating improved rural internet service, said there are more frustrations than success stories with rural internet, even with Alberta’s highly touted SuperNet broadband service.
The $300 million fibre optic network connecting 429 communities across the province runs well below capacity, yet rural residents are still frustrated by the lack of access.
“The SuperNet has not been a vehicle for stimulating economic activity in rural Alberta,” said Blundell, who organized a virtual video conference Oct. 31 to discuss issues facing rural Albertans, including internet service.
Participants could participate in the video conference from 20 locations across the province and watch speakers explain how they are using broadband internet and the Alberta SuperNet to tackle problems.
Perry Kinkaide, president of the Alberta Council of Technologies, which prepared a report on rural internet, said service won’t improve unless local leaders and government officials join together to recognize the importance of internet access to rural areas.
