Workbook Overview

The Application Workbook is intended to assist communities or regions with their connectivity planning. In order to be eligible to access the Regional Connectivity Plan Funding (“Funding”), communities must perform key planning assessments prior to submitting their application. If your community or region are at the beginning stages of connectivity planning, this Application Workbook may be a useful guide in identifying your connectivity priorities and help you answer the questions in the application form.

Workbook Activities

Regional Overview (Application Form - Section 3)

Outline how connectivity is a priority for your region. The response should identify the top concerns and barriers relevant to your community and how improved access to high-speed internet connectivity will address these needs.

Questions to consider:

Why is high-speed internet connectivity a priority for your region? Examples:

Education (ex. distance education, home schooling, internet access at libraries, public buildings)

Health (ex. telehealth, mental health and addiction support, health records, tele-pharmacies)

Economic priorities (ex. business development, tourism opportunities, community revitalization, regional assets)

Public Safety (ex. emergency services, search and rescue, food security, highway cellular)

Natural Hazards (ex. forest fires, flooding, earthquakes)

Natural Resource Industries (ex. forestry, agriculture, mining, oil and gas)

Other priorities

Describe how it will be used to address key priorities developed within your strategic planning documents i.e. Official Community Plan (OCP), Municipal/ Regional District Corporate Plan, Economic Development Plan, Land or Marine Use Plan, etc.

The table below is a sample.

Provide an outline of how connectivity is a priority for your region:

Connectivity Gaps in the Region (Application Form - Section 4)

Identify the gaps in the region’s connectivity that are impacting the ability to realize goals and objectives.

The table below is a sample.

Describe the areas where there are gaps in connectivity that impact the region’s ability to realize their goals and objectives:
Location:	Goal/objective:	Current infrastructure:	Issue:	Desired service:
e.g.123 East Street	Tele-health	Wireless	Medical clinic has limited internet capacity and can’t offer remote consultations with physician	High-speed internet
e.g. Blackacre	Distance education	Wireless	Saturated community bandwidth at peak times	Enhanced residential capacity
e.g.	Emergency alerting – forest fire evacuations	None	Cellular alerts – no cell service	Cell towers

Inventory of Connectivity in the Region (Application Form - Section 5)

Identifying the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operating in your area is an invaluable first step in connectivity planning. While there is currently no single comprehensive list of ISPs, the following links will assist you in starting your research for this activity:

National Broadband Internet Service Availability Map (text search)

List of registered Telecommunications Providers

The following is a two-step process for gathering ISP information:

Step 1: Construct an ISP inventory of all ISPs operating within the boundaries of your regional district, municipality, or community.

The table below is a sample.

Internet service provider:	Primary contact name:	Position/title:	Phone #:	Email:
e.g. TELUS	John Doe	Owner	250-555-5555	john.doe@telus.com

Step 2: Distribute the ISP Inventory Form to the ISPs you identified in the list above; fill out the Applicant sections and Contact Information prior to sending.

Consultant Activities

The Funding will offset applicant’s cost of hiring a third-party technical consultant to assist with the final stages of developing a regional connectivity plan. The consultant will validate the existing broadband services and infrastructure, the proposed connectivity solution(s) and the estimated costs to help the region achieve their goals and objectives.

As part of your Regional Connectivity Plan Funding application, please include a proposal from a qualified contractor with the following items included as part of their proposal:

Cost assessment of connectivity investments required to support the regions goals

Ex. broadband vs cellular, or specific areas such as industrial parks, business centres or subdivisions, options available for implementing proposed solution to help offset the costs i.e. reduce scope, push off timelines, type of technology etc.?

Types of connectivity and priority areas to ensure goals and optimized

Ex. broadband vs cellular, or specific areas such as industrial parks, business centres or subdivisions.

Cost of connectivity investments required to support the regions

Ex. What are the options available for implementing proposed solution to help offset the costs i.e. reduce scope, push off timelines, type of technology etc.?

Validate current internet infrastructure, proposed solution(s) and estimated costs

Optional Assessment Activities

Mapping Your Inventories and Connectivity

When connectivity planning for your region, it is helpful to understand the region and targeted services areas by sourcing maps of:

Regional District boundaries marked and named

Communities and populated areas mapped and labelled

Targeted unserved/under-served areas highlighted

Internet Service Providers in the area

Priorities and assets identified in your inventories

A mapping document can become a critical asset when communicating your current connectivity needs and goals to ISPs, contractors, and internal stakeholders. Digital mapping can also be referred to as GIS (geographic information system mapping). To complete this activity, your organization’s GIS department will require the following information and instructions (see below). If your organization does not have a GIS department, the activity can be completed using Google Earth Pro.

Instructions:

Construct a map of the boundaries of your regional district, municipality, or community

Overlay the area’s populated areas (cities, towns, villages)

Overlay the area’s broadband coverage onto your map. You can use one of the following layers:

National Broadband Data Layer

National Broadband Road Segments Layer

Overlay all priorities identified in the inventories

Reference Material

The Connectivity Handbook has been developed to promote the importance of access to affordable, reliable and adequate broadband infrastructure to meet the needs of British Columbians.

The Handbook is intended to help local governments and community organizations become more engaged, taking on leadership roles in defining key service deficiencies and unserved or under-served areas; and, in developing practical plans that can lead to realistic and affordable broadband solutions to meet those needs.

Application Support/Contact

If you have a question that is not addressed in this program guide, support is available from program staff at:

Northern Development Initiative Trust
301-1268 Fifth Avenue
Prince George, BC V2L 3L2

250-561-2525
connectingbc@northerndevelopment.bc.ca
www.northerndevelopment.bc.ca

Glossary

Definitions

Conduit: A rigid tubing placed underground to house and protect network cabling.

Dark Fibre: Unused fibre optic cable

Download Speed: The speed at which the user receives data from the Internet – for example, the speed at which a large file can be downloaded from a website.

Drops: Drops refers to the physical cable connecting the home or business to the closest upstream network device.

Duplex: Duplex refers to the simultaneous transfer of data in two directions (upload and download).

Fibre Optic Line: A type of cable that uses glass threads or plastic fibres to transmit data using pulses of light. Fibre can offer much faster speeds than, for example, copper wires.

Fixed Wireless: This is service for providing high-speed Internet to a fixed location, such as a home or business. The wireless signal is typically transmitted from a tower to an antenna installed on the roof of the home or business in question.

Gigabits per Second (Gbps): is 1,000 megabits per second. Therefore, 1 gigabit per second means 1,000 megabits per second.

Latency: Delay between transmission and receipt of signal.

Long-Term Evolution (LTE): is a standard for wireless communications (e.g. for smartphones and other devices). LTE is commonly referred to as 4G (fourth generation) cellular technology.

Low-Earth Orbit Constellation: is a system of satellites that orbit much closer to the earth than traditional communications satellites. A LEO constellation can have hundreds of satellites.

Megabits per Second (Mbps): is the most common unit of measurement for describing the speed of high-speed Internet connections.

Micro-Ducts: A smaller form of conduit tubing placed inside conduit to segment cable and fibre optics from each other.

Network Resiliency: The ability of a network to provide “back-up” service in the event of an issue with normal network operation.

Packet: A unit of data formatted for transmission on a network. Data is broken up into packets for sending over a packet switching network. Each packet has a header containing its source and destination, a block of data content, and an error-checking code. All the data packets related to a message may not take the same route to get to their destination; they are reassembled once they have arrived.

Passive Infrastructure: The non-electrical elements needed for network deployment. Examples of passive infrastructure include telephone poles, underground ducts or conduit, and wireless towers.

Peering: A settlement-free exchange of routing announcements between two Internet service providers for the purpose of ensuring that traffic from the first can reach customers of the second, and vice-versa.

Point of Presence (PoP): A facility where Internet service providers house servers, routers, switches and other communications equipment. A PoP is where an Internet service providers' last mile infrastructure connects to an Internet gateway.

Scalability: The ability of network infrastructure to be upgraded later to offer higher speeds.

Spectrum: Airwaves used to transmit sound and data wirelessly

Telehealth: A method of providing health care services remotely using digital technology including computers and mobile devices.

Upload Speed: The connection speed at which the user can send data, such as the speed to upload a video to a social media website.

Voice over Internet Protocol: VoIP is a digital communications technology that makes use of IP packets carried over packet-switched network(s). There are generally two types of networks used for VoIP services. The first is the open/public Internet and the other is dedicated or managed IP networks operated by carriers such as cable companies, usually referred to as access-dependent VoIP. When the public Internet network is used for VoIP service, this is referred to as access-independent VoIP.

Wi-Fi Hotspot: A physical location that offers, through a local area wireless computer networking (Wi-Fi) technology, Internet access over a wireless local area network through the use of a router connected to a link to an Internet service provider.

Wireless: A connection using wireless signals rather than wiring. For example, a signal can be transmitted from a wireless tower to mobile devices such as phones or to fixed locations such as houses.

Wireline/Wired: An Internet connection provided directly to a home or business using some form of wire or cable.