The federal government may have pulled the plug on immediate plans for a national Internet network, but Alberta is surging ahead with its own strategy to start linking communities across the province.

“It’s going to give Alberta that much more of an advantage – we’ll be that much further ahead of the game,” provincial Innovation and Science Minister Victor Doerksen said.

The $295-million high-speed SuperNet, which will connect 422 rural communities and include links to government offices, hospitals and schools, is a partnership between the Alberta government, Bell Intrigna and Calgary-based Axia NetMedia, which is overseeing the installation.

In the federal budget, Finance Minister Paul Martin said more time is required to implement the Internet initiative proposed by federal Industry Minister Brian Tobin. It has been estimated it will cost $4.5 billion to deliver access to every home in Canada, or $1.5 billion to link every rural community.

“More planning is required to properly achieve our commitment, particularly given the rapidly changing technology, and as a consequence, we will shift our target to the end of 2005,” Martin said.

Doerksen told the Broadband Canada Conference in Ottawa last month that Alberta is taking decisive action to bridge not only provincial disparities in access to technology, but also the growing national digital divide.

The SuperNet will eventually link 4,700 facilities across the province to high-speed broadband Internet and network services, while allowing rural Albertans to purchase previously unavailable Internet services.

An existing fibreoptic line stretching from Red Deer to Rocky Mountain House and including the communities of Sylvan Lake, Eckville, and Condor, will act as a test section for the buildout of SuperNet, said Drew McNaughton, COO of Axia NetMedia.

“In this case, we’re not actually trenching in that fibre – there was an existing provider there,” said McNaughton. “That’s one of the key principles of SuperNet – we will use existing assets where ever we can. We just have to do a commercial deal that makes it viable.”

The government has yet to announce which communities will be linked first. “We want to make sure it’s cost effective and makes sense,” added Innovation and Science department spokesman Glenn Guenther. “You wouldn’t all of a sudden jump up to Fort McMurray and then down to the Crowsnest Pass.”

Major providers including Shaw, TELUS, Group Telecom and Bell will be interconnected to the SuperNet, and pay a fee for the privilege of selling their services, which will ride on top of the transport network. The wholesale rates to ISPs in the smaller communities will be based on those charged to urban Alberta ISPs.

“One of the principles of SuperNet is that it has to become completely self-sustainable in a short time frame,” he said.

McNaughton said the shared commercial arrangement will benefit the carriers, who likely wouldn’t have built their own networks into remote areas, but will now grow their customer base in rural communities.

“We go to those small towns and places, but right behind us on top of this network will be every one of those providers doing whatever they do, plus a whole host of application providers,” he said.

“What’s different about Alberta is not the technology, but the economic model that affordably reaches rural anywhere, and enables e-learning, e-health and e-government, and does it in a way that encourages commercial and market competition in places that wouldn’t ordinarily experience it.”