Red tape snarls B.C. rural internet collective
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In northeastern British Columbia, Arvo Koppel’s small Internet provider employs field technicians who hike and ski through deep valleys and thick forests with telecommunications equipment strapped to their backs. They’ll hammer antennas to trees, or place signal repeaters on the top of mountains.
Members of the Peace Region Internet Society, typically farmers and other rural dwellers who want better links to the online world, regularly give up space on their land for equipment, and volunteer to help connect neighbours who can be as far as 10 kilometres away. They do it because Canada’s big telecom companies won’t provide high-speed Internet access to many of these areas, since there is no profit in hooking up sparsely populated, difficult-to-serve regions.[...]
Link to Globe and Mail article
Rural Internet service provider gets ear of Industry Minister
To update the article above, it appears that Industry minister Tony Clement has become personally involved with expediting the license process.
Bureaucracy at it's finest.
Bureaucracy at it's finest.