Assignment #1: Fast Internet Speeds in Small Towns

    Rural communities have fast internet because they have high-throughput fibre-optic cables deployed directly into homes and businesses, enabling the quickest-yet speeds of up to 1,000 megabits, or one gigabit, per second.  These communities are getting faster internet speeds than what is even being offered by Canadian Telecom companies like Bell, Rogers, or Shaw because they are installing their own high-speed fibre-optic cables, or are benefiting as local companies do it- setting up homes and businesses with the fastest the internet has to offer.  According to Hope Reidt the community of Harrison is fortunate because their owners are very forward- thinking, so they're way ahead of the curve in terms of wanting to provide the best technology available. The community of Olds decided to build their own fibre network because some businesses were threatening to leave town because of the challenges posed by its once sluggish internet.  The community paid for it by using government grants and loans connecting every home along the way and residents can sign up for gigabit home internet access for $120 a month (or lower speeds for less money).  In Stratford when the community installed its own fibre-optic network they blanketed neighbors with Wifi access points and the University of Waterloo opened a campus there, and Royal Bank opened a $400- million data center, however Stratford didn't hold any grudges, quite the opposite actually.  Bell installed fibre optics to more than a million premises in Atlantic Canada, and also to Northern Ontario.  Small towns and communities need high speed internet more than ever to keep employers and residents from fleeing to hooked-up cities.  The Federal government has supplied $305 million subsidy to ensure nearly every household in the country has at least minimal, five megabit-per-second broadband.