As Rob reports, Kamloops will be the first city in Canada to get city-wide wifi. Lucky bastards.
Once the service is established — likely by May — anyone in Kamloops and anyone within a 25 kilometer radius, depending on terrain, of broadcast towers will be able to get high-speed Internet at their home or office. Based on a new technology called WiMAX the test service is being launched by Victoria wireless developer VCom Inc and Vancouver-based Navigata Communications.
So what’s it going to cost? Ah. “No fee structure had yet been worked out for the WiMAX service.”
The city ought to pick up the tab–up to a point. They should enforce some kind of monthly usage restriction, but otherwise enable users basic access for free. The cost to the government would be relatively small, especially if they devised some public/private partnership where the private companies offered upgraded services to those willing to pay.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
This is awesome news. I should probably even still be in town for the launch date.
Woah, sorry for spamming you with trackbacks like that. Didn’t notice it added your link to the ping list automatically. Guess I’m a little excited. 🙂
Couple of thoughts Darren from one of the potentially lucky bastards:
– I am still a little skeptical of this actually happening. I am going to wait until I see actual equipment being installed around the city.
– An interesting sidenote to this story is the City of Kamloops Community Network. Announced at least 3 years ago, it has run into a lot of delays. The City had issues getting space in Telus owned ducts for the fibre. And construction is just starting. I guess the question is whether this new Wimax development will leapfrog what may be considered “old” technology. If the Wimax is as fast as the City’s network, then the City network is likely in trouble. Either way, I am not sure the City has an appetite to pick up the tab for wireless when they already have their network in.