On Wednesday, November 9th, the small northern logging town of Chapleau, Ontario launched wireless Internet service to all their 2,800 residents and visitors. Chapleau is three hours southwest of Timmins.

In a joint venture between Bell Canada, Nortel, and the township of Chapleau, the entire town has been turned into a giant Wi-Fi hotspot thanks to state-of-the-art wireless mesh technology. This is the first public launch of this technology in Canada.

The wireless Internet service will be available to residents for free for 12 months. Researchers from Laurentian and UofT will also be studying the socioeconomic impact of broadband within the town.

In addition, Sympatico High Speed ADSL is also now available within the town, with plans to roll out DSL to the three surrounding First Nation reservations by 2006.

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