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Gold Trail Open Network Society(GTONS) is a registered
non-profit organization that is dedicated to Broadband Internet
connectivity. Beginning within the "Gold Trail" area of
Central British Columbia, GTONS has worked to create a Broadband
network which works to serve Gold Trail communities, and may expand
to outlying areas to serve additional communities in the future.
GTONS was founded by British Columbia's Open
Learning Agency (OLA), the TNRD Library System, Copper Valley Cable
Vision, and the First Nations Education Council, and School District
#74. Any Gold Country community wishing to take part in the initiative
may become a member, as may any other person or agency with a specific
interest in bringing Broadband to rural and remote British Columbia.
Incorporated in September of 2002, GTONS assumes
technology development activities initiated by the Gold Country Communities
Society (GCCS). GTONS incorporation came about partly due to Provincial
and Federal agency requests that there be regional groups dedicated
to Broadband Internet infrastructure development. GTONS facilitates
Broadband projects by bringing together the collective expertise of
public and private entities in partnership, and working to secure
development funding to develop technology infrastructures that work
for the rural and remote communities. The
cost-prohibitive nature of delivering Broadband services to small
remote & rural communities that are sometimes located in geographically
challenging areas means that these communities cannot be served
by commercial interests alone. While there is an urgent need for
these communities to have services, it is often simply too difficult
in many cases for strictly commercial entities to build a solid
business case for installing technology over rough terrain to a
handful of users. Therefore, in order to bring Broadband Internet
services such as Government, Education, and Health Services to the
outlying communities, a co-operative partnership model for service
delivery becomes necessary.
The members of GTONS work in co-operation with
community members to bring services to communities, benefiting businesses
and individuals in those communities, expanding markets, and through
increased access to supplies and information, enabling small communities
to better compete with their urban counterparts. Thus, GTONS was
formed to create co-operative community/public/private partnerships,
facilitating technology infrastructure development, and bringing
Internet services to outlying areas on an equal opportunity basis
for those communities.
GTONS, through this work, is a conduit towards
fulfillment of the Federal Government objective of bringing Broadband
Internet Services to every Canadian by the year 2004. While there
is no direct benefit to GTONS, its members are able to expand their
own community economic development efforts through their own increased
Broadband access.
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