By John Boivin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
VALLEY VOICE
A Nakusp man says he can provide residents, businesses and visitors downtown with free, high-speed internet for the next four years — if he can get a bit of help from council.
Ron Nymeyer came to Nakusp council on January 25 to ask for a letter of support, and permission to install Wi-Fi transmitters on Village street lamps for a demonstration project that could be a test case for internet service in the future.
“The village is seriously underserved by the large corporations in terms of internet activity and connectivity,” he told council. “Basically .125this project will.375 prove that the last mile is possible and within our reach.”
Nymeyer, operating under the business name Dragon’s Davinci, says his project would see two antennas broadcasting a Wi-Fi signal several hundred metres in any direction from Village lampposts on Broadway. Because it’s a proof-of-concept project, he says the real effective distances still have to be determined.
If it works as a test model, Wi-Fi connection to the web could be the model for when the CBT’s fibre-optic project brings fast internet to town.
Partnering with KASA
Nymeyer says the idea first came to him when he was working on computer network upgrades for the Kootenay Adaptive Sport Association, located at the Shon’s Bike Shop building on Broadway. He was looking to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot for his own business when he realized Shon’s would be a good location for one of his pilot project transmitters.
KASA has since become a partner in Nymeyer’s proposal. He’s also going for a Columbia Basin Trust non-profit tech grant.
KASA is involved because it needs better internet, like every agency in Nakusp, said Cedra Eichenauer, who was helping Nymeyer make his pitch.
“Once the fibre comes in, it will be up to the Village to decide how to distribute it, and what Ron is trying to do is show us as a community what an example of that distribution could look like, work out some of the bugs so that that research is done before we have to implement it on a big scale,” she said.
Business benefit
Providing a third-party Wi-Fi access point would be good for local businesses, Nymeyer says. The Wi-Fi from his antennas is the same signal as in a private home, just more commercially robust.
“By having a cohesive environment for the Wi-Fi, business and local people can log into one access service, and then all the village businesses wouldn’t have to be constantly giving out their Wi-Fi passwords,” he said. “It would help keep their networks secure and have their bandwidth available for business use. It would make business run more smoother, make them more secure.”
The pilot project will go for about four years — which would provide service until the Columbia Basin Broadband Corporation’s fibre-optic line is operational. Then, he says, the Village would be in a great position to take immediate advantage of a new high-speed network. The ‘last mile’ problem would essentially be solved, he said.
“This will create a foundation to get everything tied together, working and running, so we have all the bugs worked out. So when CBT comes up and says you have a connection, you put in a backhaul, and we go,” he said.
The ask
Nymeyer asked council for access to a couple of Village lampposts and their electrical outlets — the same used to light the holiday decorations at Christmas. He says it should be a trivial thing to install the Wi-Fi transmitters.
While his service would be free to the user, providing broadband does cost money. Nymeyer says they’ll recover their equipment costs through a grant they’re applying for from the CBT. The service will cost about 20 cents a day to operate the connection. Having invested in the equipment out of pocket, he says Village support on the daily cost would also be welcome. But it was not part of his formal request to council.
Nymeyer also asked council for a letter of support for his CBT grant application.
“I’m trying to do the best I can do for the downtown, so I can show it is possible, I can show it is ready to go,” he says.
Council told Nymeyer they couldn’t offer him a letter of support or access to the lampposts right away — staff had to review his plan for costs and liabilities. A report is expected back to council by the next meeting.
