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Dig Deeper:
BetterFarming.com
Better Farming
January 2017
HIGH-SPEED
INTERNET
because of such struggles and,
Hambly Odame says, we’ll miss these
opportunities if connectivity is not
improved.
Fibre optics on farms
So is the struggle to obtain rural
Internet, rural broadband in particu-
lar, worth it? In addition to better use
of technologies, what else might a
broadband connection offer to
farmers?
Farmers could benefit, Hambly
Odame says, by taking advantage of
“e-farm-gate” possibilities.
E-farm-gate sales are, essentially,
farm-gate sales made via the Internet
instead of a roadside stand.
For example, instead of putting a
notice at the roadside that your farm
has 50 sacks of Yukon potatoes for
sale, Hambly Odame says, you put
them up on the Internet. Local restau-
rants or others may see the ad and
buy such surplus crops.
There is also the “Uber model” of
buying farm equipment.
Farmers may take part in the
sharing economy by sharing or
renting their equipment with others.
This is the 21st-century model of
co-operative buying.
Increased connectivity is needed so
that farmers can put up photos,
videos and other bits of information
to prospective sharers.
Another technology that will
change the game is data, and the sale
of it. According to Hambly Odame,
farmers need better Internet so that
they can control the data being
generated on their farms about their
activities – for example, GIS data –
and link the data with groups that
may want to buy that information.
If this realization comes true, it
could be that farmers are growing
another crop and just don’t realize it.
That crop is big data.
Bettering communities, broadband
and rural society
Not only farm businesses but also
rural communities will benefit from
increased Internet access.
Rural Canadians are well aware
that rural out-migration is an issue
across Canada, and it’s related to
connectivity.
According to Clark Somerville,
increasing rural access to the Internet
can help prevent such out-migration
because it provides families with a
host of new options.
First, access helps rural Canadians
upgrade their skills, allowing them to
take advantage of training courses
offered electronically by colleges and
universities.
Access also opens the door to the
possibilities of telecommuting.
Instead of moving to urban centres,
rural residents can stay in their home
communities and work there.
Anything that we can do to prevent
out-migration is a good thing, Somer-
ville adds.
Rural students also feel penalized
because they are not often able to
access the Internet in the way that
their urban classmates can.
Hambly Odame found that it was
not rare, for example, for a farm
family to have to drive their children
to a local Tim Hortons’s hot spot so
that they could upload their home-
Goal is 20-25 Mbps
Xplornet is one of the province’s 14
(and growing) rural Internet service
providers. It has been making
headway with improving service in
the past couple of years.
In particular, Xplornet has up-
graded towers in its markets in
many places. It seeks to provide
users with up to 20.0 to 25.0 Mbps
speeds in places where they have a
“line of sight” to a fixed tower by
2017.
According to Chris Harlond,
director of sales at Xplornet, such
access will give users the same
Internet experience that urban
residents have in the rest of Canada.
Where such fixed tower access is
unavailable, Xplornet offers satellite
service that reaches 5.0 Mbps
download speeds.
Elayne Miles, strategic marketing
and product development leader at
Xplornet, added that Xplornet seeks
to invest to give access to “today’s
Internet” to rural people.
BF
Last summer, the Ontario Government held a summit on the issue of “Attracting and Retaining Youth to
Rural Ontario.” Those at the summit, shown here, discussed broadband connectivity.
OMAFRA photo