Bowen Islander Ken Simpson reminded Mayor and council this week of what he saw as one of the best ideas to come out of the 2014 election: the creation of better internet service to the island. Simpson proposed that Bowen, like the town of Olds Alberta, could create a community owned fibre optic network.
Back in 2004, the town of Olds, population 8,000, pointed to “brain drain” as one of the major contributions to the decline in the local economy. Like many rural communities, the internet service in the town was both slow and expensive.
With no success in attracting tech-based businesses and some companies threatening to leave town, the community took action. With a 2.5 million dollar grant from the Alberta government, they started work on the town’s fibre optic network, starting with a community facility at the library. By last summer, after a total investment of $6 million, roughly 60 percent of the homes in Olds could connect to this network for the same cost as they were paying for their much slower internet services previously.
Simpson says that Bowen Island has more to gain from this kind of service than a place like Olds, as we are already connected to a “hip, tech savvy place,” namely, Vancouver.
He added that as it stands, Bowen Islanders pay roughly $1.5 million per year to Telus and Shaw for their internet service. (The number is based on the idea that roughly 1,500 households are paying $83 per month for their interet service.)
Simpson added that, because we are such a small slice of their overall business, there is not much incentive for either company to improve service or bring down prices.
“We can’t count on them to keep us wired,” said Simpson.
While many Bowen Islanders might not see a big problem with the current level of connectivity, Simpson says that bringing a gigabit of connectivity through a fibre optic network would be 65 times faster than what we are currently used to.
“The way Google describes it, you could stream five HD movies at once, but that’s not how folks should think of it,” says Simpson.
“For average Internet users, the real difference is how amazingly fast the web becomes. Pages just BANG into place. Fibre is as much about response time as it is about raw throughput.”
Simpson points to business, particularly in the tech sector and digital media, where this level of service becomes much more than a luxury.
As the co-founder and CEO of an anti-spam company called MailChannels, Simpson says that the big difference a gigabit of connectivity would make for him would be improving the video-conferencing link to his office in Vancouver.
“If I could hook up an HD video conferencing link with my office, I could work from Bowen more often. I might even set up a permanent office here,” he says. “My friends in digital media, though would really benefit because currently they can’t work from home at all. The bandwidth requirements are just too high.”
Simpson told council that, considering the current amount Bowen Island is paying on a yearly basis to Telus and Shaw, the $6 million price tag does not seem like so much. Plus, he said, it is cheaper than commuting - and there are many Bowen Islanders who commute to Vancouver every day to work in the tech sector.
Software developer Leo Chan is one of the lucky ones. After working for two different companies that required his presence in an office in Vancouver on a daily basis, Chan has started a job where he is able to work remotely. Now, his daily commute takes him to Artisan Square. The situation is workable, he says, but not ideal.
“The nature of this business means I need to do very large uploads and downloads, and I know that with Telus or Shaw that will only happen at a trickle,” says Chan. “This means I have to plan for these transfers in advance and work around them, which has the potential to slow me down if I’m not careful. This puts working on Bowen at a competitive disadvantage from working in Vancouver, at least technologically.”
Simpson says that investing in a fibre optic network could allow Bowen to surpass the internet service that Vancouver gets, and this could be a major boon to our economy.
“It could enhance the quality of life on Bowen, and keep the GDP flowing,” he told council.
He asked council to consider setting up a committee to conduct a feasibility study of such a project, and then to report back.
Council responded with interest and enthusiasim, but no firm commitments.
