The much-heralded Alberta Supernet should roll into Slave Lake sometime early next year. First all government offices, schools and the hospital will hook up to the fibre-optic communications system. Then the system will offer leftover bandwidth to Internet service providers to compete with Telus for customers.
That should be a good thing, resulting in lower prices. Nobody seems quite sure that it will happen, but it could and perhaps should.
Cable TV Slave Lake is poised to take advantage of the opportunity. The company has long wanted to become an Internet service provider, says Manager Richard McLaren, but having to use Telus lines meant that it couldn't really compete with the telecommunications giant. Supernet removes that barrier. With cable hookups to a good portion of Slave Lake homes already in place, Cable TV is in position to offer an alternative to the Telus high-speed Internet service. McLaren promises competitive rates, and higher speed than Telus's ADSL service.
The higher speed is the one certain advantage that Supernet brings. According to Town of Slave Lake Information Systems Coordinator Murray Anhorn, it will allow the transmission of "extremely large files extremely quickly." Those include hospital x-ray files that he says are "enormous."
Supernet is a Government of Alberta initiative aimed primarily at providing a secure, dedicated, high-speed telecommunications network to public institutions. Each institution must pay a monthly connection fee. The Town of Slave Lake has yet to decide on what it will pay, but Town Manager Jay Simons says "the $400 package has been recommended."
The Town has agreed to pay a $4,000 fee to ensure the establishment of a connection terminal called a Point of Presence (POP) within the community, which Simons says will be offset by leases of right of ways to Supernet.
A Supernet connection is not the same as a high-speed Internet account. In fact the Town and other Supernet users will still have to maintain an Internet account with a provider of that service, whether Telus or somebody else. The Town currently spends about $170 per month for Telus high-speed Internet service. What the Supernet connection will give them - possibly among other things - is videoconferencing capabilities within the network of municipalities, schools, hospitals and other members of the network. Anhorn says this could allow Town employees to take training courses at home, rather than having to travel to Edmonton or Calgary.
Simons anticipates other benefits to the community.
"There are inquiries coming forward about providing high speed wireless service to rural areas," he says. "I think it's a great opportunity."
Supernet spokesman Jeremy Fritsche says there are three aspects to the construction of Supernet, starting with the fibre optic lines. He expects those to be in the ground to Slave Lake "by the end of the year." The POP will be installed, also by the end of the year and the local access connections are to be in place "early next year," he says.
According to Fritsche, Supernet will connect 13 government offices, three health care facilities, ten educational locations and one library in the Slave Lake area, as well as two municipal offices.
The province is fronting the cost of the establishment of the Supernet system. According to the latest information, the price tag is $193 million over three years.

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