Okay, okay I was wrong. The good folks involved in the internet society managed to pull off the impossible and have a nice little system up and running! Congratulations! Please visit their web site at http://wynndel.ca/html/wis.html for subscription information, etc.

The system is connected to a Telus backbone using a 10mps fiber connection. Yes, it's fast.

The society part of the system consists of an Trango Wireless system operating with 900 MHz and 5.8 GHz wireless connections.

I had lot's of doubts that it would ever reach me. Problem is, I've got too many trees around my place. Matter of fact, I live in a forest.

Here's a picture of the antenna they mounted on my roof. Just below the roof you can see the 900 mhz customer unit which is connected via Ethernet to my computer router. The transmission site is on a hill a tad higher in elevation than my site. It's about 1km away. And all those trees in the picture? Well, they really don't show the true picture ... in reality there are more trees behind the trees.

Does it work? Yes. I've done a number of speed tests and I am consistently getting 2350 kps download and upload rates. Yes, upload is just as fast as download! Good show to the intelligentsia of Wynndel!

UPDATE April/2008: Well, sometimes life gets better; sometimes it gets worse. I'm guessing on this, but I suspect that there are too many users on the connection; and/or they can't afford the bandwidth charges ... but, my connection has been reduced. I'm now getting between 1000 and 1500 kps. Apparently that's as good as it's going to get. Hopefully Telus wireless or some other competitor will open here in the future (and the community group can keep things going until then). I'd hate to go back to a satellite connection.