Free Broadband Connection Available to First Ten Businesses to Sign Up
By Contributor
Are you in the eligible downtown area in Rossland? Want to reap the business benefits of super high-speed fibre-optic Internet? If you are one of the first ten businesses to sign up for one year of service from Internet providers on the Rossland network, you’ll receive a free connection to your business or organization. That’s a worthwhile saving.
Columbia Basin Broadband Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Columbia Basin Trust, brought the high-speed network to downtown Rossland this past spring and customers are impressed with the reliability and speed of the network.
RED Mountain Ventures uses the service and has found great improvements while transferring files and videoconferencing—which it does a lot since someof its team members are located in the United States. With its previous Internet connection, “we would find that the system completely bogged down when school let out. From 2:30 pm onward, we simply couldn’t schedule a videoconference,” said Christine Andison, Director of Planning and Development. “We can now schedule a videoconference as needed as opposed to when we think the system will have less pressure on it.”
Subscribers are able to obtain up to 100 Mbps symmetrical service (both uploading and downloading). This means businesses are able to respond to customers’ needs faster, transmit data faster, offer new online services, expand online sales, boost productivity and efficiency, and more.
“It’s faster and it’s more reliable,” said Caroline Rousselle, Co-owner of Revolution Cycles and a current subscriber to the high-speed service. “Our point-of-sale program is web-based, so the Internet is pretty crucial around here.”
The Rossland library uses the Internet for checking in and out books, and their clients use it for everything from watching moves, to doing homework, to browsing the Internet. The library has even acted as a remote location for TED Talks. “We’re a public space, and a lot of people come in here to use our Internet,” said Beverley Rintoul, Director, Rossland Public Library. “We’ve had Wi-Fi for a long time, and sometimes we had so many people in here that it would lag. Now it’s way more consistent. Everybody seems to be able to do everything they want to do.”
“The feedback from current subscribers has been fantastic, so we really want to encourage other downtown businesses to take advantage,” said Aimee Ambrosone, Chief Operating Officer, Columbia Basin Broadband Corporation. “This is an opportunity to advance both the business itself and the community as a whole, with services on par with those found in large cities.”
To view if your business can access the service, view the map at ourtrust.org/rosslandbroadband. Contact the following Internet service providers to sign up today.
· Columbia Networks – columbianetworks.ca
· Columbia Wireless – columbiawireless.ca
· Secure-by-Design – secure-by-design.com
