Journal: News & Comment

Rogers and Bell's portable unplugged Inukshuk Internet service

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I hadn't heard about it until today, when my cousin mentioned her new service to my wife, but the Inukshuk network here in Canada seems like a fascinating way to get Internet wherever you are in the coverage area.

It's a tad experimental, using "pre-WiMAX" wide-area wireless networking in some not-well-explained combination of line-of-sight (presumably microwave) and WiMAX technologies.

But whatever. The key thing is, in major portions of Canada's 20 main metropolitan areas, including much of Greater Vancouver, you can schlep around a wireless modem about the size of a paperback, plug it into any wall socket for power—at home, at work, at the coffee shop, even in your car with a power inverter—and then hook it up to your laptop (or a wireless router like an AirPort Express) for Internet access. Prices range from $45 to $60 Cdn a month in three plans, depending on the bandwidth, monthly data usage, and carrier (either Bell or Rogers) you choose. Pretty neat.

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