Just about any of our customers who have already made the switch from older forms of internet (like cable) to fiber broadband will tell you that fiber’s advanced technology is vastly superior to anything else they’ve used.
From downloading files at near-lightspeed, to voluminous amounts of available bandwidth for handling multiple applications simultaneously, to more reliable material components that provide pristine streaming TV and movie experiences, fiber is simply heads-and-shoulders above cable, DSL, and satellite internet.
But those are just technical specs—and that doesn’t tell even half the story! Fiber internet, like the kind delivered by Northern Lights Fiber can genuinely enhance your quality of life in a myriad of ways, including the following eight use cases we’re proud to support.
1. Telehealth Expedites Critical Health Interventions
We begin with everyone’s top priority—keeping their family healthy. And the internet now plays a significant role in delivering healthcare to millions. Telehealth, which allows physicians and other medical professionals to provide initial consultations (and other healthcare) from a patient’s home, has expanded massively in recent years.
Telehealth helps doctors and patients assess when more urgent in-person care is needed (and when it’s not). Prescriptions can get filled faster with telehealth, and consultations over the internet can even assist in properly applying first aid to injuries.
Telehealth consultations can be performed quickly and reliably thanks to fiber’s bounty of bandwidth, which lets audio and video data transfer between doctor and patient seamlessly. Many doctors won’t make a diagnosis when a poor internet connection causes choppy video calls, but that’s not a problem when the patient has fiber!
2. Remote Work Improves Convenience and Productivity
While remote work isn’t for everyone, it can be life-changing for caregivers who need a little more flexibility. Plus, while avoiding the hassles of commutes and traffic delays, remote workers also save money on gasoline and reduce their carbon footprint.
While many workers and employers decide to go fully remote, even partial remote work flexibility can be a blessing. But it takes a particularly robust internet connection to facilitate remote work (especially video conferencing), which isn’t always supported by inferior connections like satellite.
Fiber’s symmetrical downloads and uploads let workers send and receive large files and transmit data during long meetings and conferences, making a remote staff member genuinely feel part of the team!
3. Distance Education Allows Students to Gain Skills and Get Ahead
Access to higher education is more attainable than ever, thanks to the multitude of online distance learning opportunities available through colleges and universities around the country.
From undergraduate and graduate degrees to technical certifications, the internet puts education within reach for many who thought it was impossible or beyond their means, while helping them achieve the skills necessary to meet their career goals.
Fiber internet’s enormous bandwidth facilitates reliable distance learning and even genuine classroom experiences. It allows students and professors to share large files like presentations or lectures in real-time and enables video conferencing to foster learning and growth, including one-on-one student-faculty interactions—all without sweating frequent distortions or outages that frustrate students on older internet technologies.
4. Lifelong Learning Keeps the Mind Active and Engaged
Beyond bringing official degree and certificate programs to students, fiber internet also facilitates a less formal but still highly valued form of education: lifelong learning. Lifelong learning provides opportunities for the curious to understand their world—and even the universe—well after college ends.
Several companies and major universities, such as Wondrium (formerly The Great Courses), edX, Harvard, and Yale have developed extensive online course offerings. You can find classes from prestigious professors spanning topics like ancient Greek history, Renaissance art, classical music, modern astronomy, and more.
And many courses are available free of charge! Through fiber’s near-lightspeed downloading, these courses can be streamed and enjoyed right from your home.
5. Virtual Reality Lets You Explore the World from Home
Fiber’s hefty bandwidth and vigorous download speeds also brings the wonder of Virtual Reality to your home—and with it, the travel experiences many have only dreamed about! Unlike traditional forms of entertainment, VR’s wonderous technology envelopes a user in multiple dimensions of visual and sound effects.
VR—through fiber internet—makes viewers literally feel like they’re wherever VR is showing them, whether it’s a tour of the Grand Canyon or an Amazon rainforest, an astronaut’s view from outer space, or a sonorous symphony hall.
Fiber’s speed and bandwidth combined with VR technology allows you to explore Paris’ Louvre Museum one day, and the Colosseum in Rome the next without ever leaving your living room!
6. Smart Homes Save Energy, Time, and Money
Fiber internet and its spectacular speeds and enormous bandwidth capacities make it possible to power a genuine smart home—a place brimming with tech and devices to cut energy usage and costs and make life better and more efficient.
From smart refrigerators that let you know when it’s time to get a new gallon of milk, to smart lighting that cuts off when you leave home, to smart speakers playing music (or soundscapes) throughout every room, smart home technology can turn your dwelling into the home of your dreams.
Remember that fiber can keep these devices and smart home features running smoothly, while still letting you stream TV and movies, upload videos, and enjoy everything else about your internet. Unlike other forms of internet, with fiber, you’re not forced to choose which online activity to sacrifice at any given time!
7. Smart Home Security Makes for Safer Homes and Neighborhoods
One smart home feature everyone should take advantage of is improved real-time safety and security delivered by smart lighting, smart cameras, smart doorbells and related tech. Fiber-powered devices can monitor your home for security threats at all times, whether you’re tucked in your own bed upstairs or thousands of miles away on vacation.
Additionally, outdoor smart lighting and doorbell systems help make your neighborhood safer too, deterring “porch pirates” and other crime. Fiber has the power to keep these crucial smart home safety and security systems running strong while still allowing you to stay productive and engaged in other online activities simultaneously.
8. Video Calling Keeps You Connected Face-to-Face
Lastly, fiber’s impressive speeds and incredible bandwidth make video calling crystal clear and convenient. Grandparents can easily have face-to-face conversations with their grandchildren, and both sides of the call can see faces as well as hear voices.
Video calling is simply a much more intimate way to stay in touch than by phoning or emailing. And fiber enables this improved communication without the distortions and interruptions that plague other types of internet.
The eight examples above are just a small sample of the way fiber internet’s innovative technology enhances your life. From practical matters like health, work, and security, to broadening your worldview and sharing knowledge and world cultures, fiber can improve your well-being, inspire your mind, and uplift you.
To learn additional ways that Northern Lights Fiber’s service can make a real difference in your life, follow our social pages!
Small businesses and their leaders have way too much going on to spend time tracking down invoices or waiting for the bank to process payments. Fortunately, advanced internet-based payment systems have substantially cut down paperwork processing, as well as the time it takes to receive funds.
Below we highlight six of the best online e-commerce and in-person payment options available for small businesses today. When connected to Northern Lights Fiber’s fiber network, your small business can use the technology it needs to grow and thrive—and you can get back to doing the actual work of your business instead of worrying about receiving payment for your efforts!
1. Square
We start our list with Square, an overwhelmingly popular payment service that continues to attract new vendors and customers alike.
Square is an excellent fit for businesses that are mobile or whose clients often pay on-the-go rather than in a brick-and-mortar business establishment. At the same time, Square’s in-person point-of-sale options are still well-respected and its software and app are noted for their ease of use.
2. Stripe
Stripe is a sophisticated online payment processing app with versatile features many savvy small business owners love. Highly customizable with numerous options to aid in bookkeeping, databasing, and generating revenue reports, Stripe excels well beyond basic payment processing.
Its software fully integrates payments and invoicing as well as other essential business needs, including tracking accounts receivable and processing refunds. Given these extra features, however, there is a steeper learning curve for Stripe than with other simpler payment processing options on our list.
3. PayPal
Perhaps the most well-known payment service on our list, PayPal has been a part of e-commerce culture since 1998 and is particularly useful for vendors that prefer sending and receiving online invoices.
Its near-universal name recognition also means customers know and trust it. However, compared to other options on our list, PayPal is relatively sparse in terms of features and versatility, and does not offer businesses as much in the way of in-person transactions as other services.
4. Shopify
Like PayPal, Shopify is another familiar name in online shopping. Shopify’s ecommerce ecosystem encompasses vendors both large and small, offering a significant advantage to many online retailers.
That advantage comes with a cost, however, as Shopify charges a monthly fee in addition to per transaction fees, which can be a drawback to many small businesses. Still, its seamless and simple interface and many features have drawn many happy small businesses to Shopify.
5. Clover
Next up is Clover, an exceptional in-person payment processing program with many online features as well. Industry experts are impressed by Clover’s vast library of fully-integrated third-party apps that do much more than just accept payments.
With Clover, small businesses can get accounting, tax, databasing, marketing, and other critical business features all in one place, making it a solid value. Clover’s pricing is notable for its flat rates, but be sure to check out the differences between plans, which can vary based on sales volume and other factors.
6. Lightspeed
Our last recommended option is Lightspeed, one of the leading cloud-based in-person and retail-oriented point-of-sale payment services in the industry. Popular both for its simplicity and competitive pricing, it also offers a range of features from simple retail purchasing to online shopping and e-commerce.
For businesses with extensive inventory to track, Lightspeed’s acclaimed inventory management systems are a huge timesaver, even helping you reorder when stock gets low.
Fiber’s Speed and Power Lets You Process Payments and Run Your Business Simultaneously!
Now that you’ve checked out the above six payment options, small businesses should remember that to be truly productive and efficient, they also need the fastest, most reliable internet they can get. After all, the systems above, along with all their many benefits, are only as effective as the quality and speed of the internet that delivers them. And fiber internet is quite simply the best internet a small business can get today.
Contact Northern Lights Fiber today to get the speed you need to power your business. And for more helpful hints to keep your small business productive and efficient, follow our social pages!
At Northern Lights Fiber, we’re proud to be known around Sturgeon County as the best internet provider for residents and businesses. But did you know that we also support a third group with our high-speed fiber internet network? Today, we’re taking a moment to celebrate local community anchor institutions.
Read on to learn more about this important group—and how, as a local company ourselves, Northern Lights Fiber is committed to keeping them connected.
What Are Community Anchor Institutions?
Anchor institutions are mission-based, publicly-oriented organizations that provide services essential to our area’s economy, health, safety, culture, and general well-being.
Anchor institutions include hospitals and other medical facilities, emergency services like fire and police, universities and other institutions of higher education, and public services like libraries.
These institutions all play a critical role in our society, and they all depend on reliable access to the internet to function effectively in the 21st century economy.
Hospitals and Medical Clinics
Universally appreciated by everyone fortunate enough to have one close by, a hospital is an anchor institution that many of us depend on in the starkest moments of our lives. Whether they’re treating chronic illnesses or responding to life-threatening injuries, hospitals and other medical clinics provide critical services every day.
And in a true health emergency, every second counts. Rapid access to medical records, keen and swift analysis of radiological and similar medical imagery, and urgent consultations among experts—these are often matters of life and death. Thus, perhaps more than anywhere else, having internet as reliable and fast as fiber in our community hospitals and health clinics is most critical.
Beyond the immediate health needs of patients and the broader community, hospitals and medical clinics regularly communicate with both patients and other health professionals. Maintaining a solid internet connection to transmit medical files and even hold telehealth follow-up visits is crucial to the missions of hospitals and medical centers.
Fiber’s bandwidth capacity is substantially larger than other types of internet and can make indispensable communication and data transfers quick and seamless, helping health providers fulfill their calling—and keep our communities healthier and safer at the same time.
Fire, Police, and Other Emergency Services
Local first responders–the good people of our fire stations, paramedics, and police departments–are our community’s heroes, often putting their own lives at risk to help others. And they are regularly on call at every minute of every hour of the day.
Without the brave and resourceful men and women in fire, police and other emergency services, our community would be far less safe. Thus, it goes without saying that our first responders are anchor institutions in our area, and everyone is grateful for their service.
Reliable communications and connectivity is an absolute necessity for these essential services. Fiber internet keeps emergency service providers informed about hazards, real-time traffic information, hazardous weather and natural disasters, and other problems our community faces. And fiber keeps fire, police, and paramedics connected to everyone in our community–including to hospitals and emergency rooms–providing an instant connection when and where help is needed most.
Local Schools and Educational Facilities
The quintessential anchor institution in Canada is the educational facility or school. Centers of learning employ talented and skilled individuals in many fields who educate children and young adults and provide them with skills and knowledge for success.
But local schools and educational facilities do far more than just teach students. They also serve as learning, cultural, artistic, and athletic centers for our entire community, greatly enriching our lives with special events, art exhibits, dramatic performances, musical concerts, and sports.
And given the beehive of online activity generated at centers of learning, a steady and fast internet connection is a veritable requirement for 21st century education.
The broader community, which often has access to a school’s sporting events, fine arts exhibitions, and even certain library materials also benefits from fiber’s high speeds and greater bandwidth, multiplying the benefits to our region even more.
Libraries and Museums
Often overlooked, but nonetheless invaluable, public libraries and museums of all kinds provide educational, artistic, and cultural opportunities offered almost nowhere else. They bring together resourceful, knowledgeable experts and support staff that create experiences that both inform and inspire.
Groups as diverse as toddlers, school children, book clubs, tourists, and seniors are enriched by the facilities and programs libraries and museums provide. Without fiber internet, however, neither of these anchor institutions can fulfill their unique niche in our community, including facilitating beloved programs like story hour, reading clinics, film nights, visiting exhibitions, club meetings, and guest experts.
And the community can often access many of these features—including e-books and other electronic materials—from home through remote and online access. Thus, fiber keeps each of us better connected to our area’s libraries, museums, and related curated institutions and their bevy of information and collections that set them apart.
Fiber Internet Keeps Our Anchor Institutions Well-Connected to Our Community—and to You
As much as our community depends on anchor institutions to improve our daily lives and make our region a better place to live, anchor institutions in turn rely on dependable and fast internet to get their jobs done. And they also look to the local team of experts and technicians that keep Northern Lights Fiber’s fiber network running strong and efficiently—and with the local knowledge and care to respond fast and effectively to any technical issue that may arise.
Indeed, the team at Northern Lights Fiber are more than just internet service professionals. We’re also your neighbors. Like you, we live and work in our community, which means we rely on and appreciate the work of our community’s anchor institutions.
As a local company ourselves, we’re highly committed to responding swiftly to emergencies like outages, which in turn lets the good people at our local anchor institutions do their jobs serving our community and keeping it healthy as well.
When you choose Northern Lights Fiber for your residential or business internet, you support our business—enabling us to turn around and support our community. Thank you for shopping locally for your internet. We’re proud to keep Sturgeon County connected!
We have been hard at work to ensure everyone knows that we are bringing your community fiber optic internet! More importantly, our project is bringing speeds up to 1,000 Mbps! And because Sturgeon County has been so poorly served, this means that you will have an opportunity to get internet that is 1000x faster. Here’s a rundown on the progress so far.
Progress So Far:
We’ve been hard at work alongside the Canadian Fiber Optics team to get fiber into residents’ homes as fast as we can. The transport construction crew has been plowing and directional drilling along the many highways and grid routes, the installation team has been getting ahead of them with drops to the homes ready to connect to our services when the transport and middle mile construction is complete! There were some delays with the fires and weather in the area, however crews are still committed to connect Phase 1 of the Sturgeon Broadband Project in 2023.
Here is the most recent update where the construction stands in our communities from the CFO team:
Drop crews will be out in multiple communities getting homes connected to fiber optics!
Middle mile crews are active in Silverchief, Reyda Vista, and Fairhaven, and in October will be moving in to Pro North and Calahoo Trailer Park.
Transport crews are actively connecting working north from Villeneuve towards Riviere Que Barre to connect communities
As a reminder, the transport fiber is the fiber that will connect hamlets to each other. The middle mile fiber is the fiber infrastructure that runs along streets and alleys in population centers, and the drop is the fiber the connects your individual home or property. The full status update can be seen below!
Villeneuve – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Calahoo – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Hansen’s Estates – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Turfside Estates – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Rosal Acres – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Dover Estates – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Shil Shol Estates – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Westwood Lane – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Glory Hills – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Pine Sands – Complete, Internet Service Active!
Silver Chief – Drops in progress, middle mile in progress
Fairhaven and West Fairhaven – Drops in progress, middle mile in progress
Reyda Vista – Drops in progress, middle mile in progress
Pro North – Middle mile starting October 2023
Calahoo Trailer Park – Middle mile starting October 2023
Northern Lights – Drops in progress, middle mile completed ahead of transport construction
River Que Barre – Drops in progress, middle mile completed ahead of transport construction
Heritage IP – Drops in progress, middle mile completed ahead of transport construction
Terreault Estates – Drops in progress, middle mile completed ahead of transport construction
RR262 – Drops in progress, middle mile completed ahead of transport construction
Rol Anna Park – Drops in progress, middle mile completed ahead of transport construction
Villeneuve Airport – Drops in progress, middle mile completed
If you are in a community where services are coming soon and you’ve already signed up for Northern Lights Fiber, there is nothing required to do on your end! Our team will call you to schedule installations of services once we have network light to your community.
Underground Construction
To prepare Sturgeon County for their digital future, new fiber-optic infrastructure is deeply important. This will ensure that the upgrades will service and last for generations to come. And to ensure that the network remains reliable, CFO will bury this infrastructure! But even in the best weather conditions, installing new underground infrastructure is hard and dangerous work, so here are some things you should know about the project:
Flagging
Before the project begins down your alleys, side streets, and the drop comes into your yard, you will see flags begin to pop up all around. This is the first step at installation your drop, and if you’ve registered for services (or completed your access agreement) you will be notified when we start this process for your home. These flags are incredibly important as it tells the construction crew where important infrastructure, like gas and electric, is located. If you see these flags, please ensure that you do not touch or remove them from the ground. If a crew is unable to see a flag or the utilities below it could cause serious damage to your utilities or cause harm to the crew! If you would like to let us know about private utilities on your property where we will be building, please call our main line and let our team know. For more information on locates, visit UtilitySafety.ca.
Installing the drop
This is the easy part! Access to the home isn’t required for the initial drop so no appointment is needed. This is completed based on techs availability. The CFO crew will come by and knock/ring first before getting to work. They will install the conduit from our access point to just outside of your home. They do this by making use of a vibratory plow, to install the fiber cable just beneath the ground. All you’ll see is an orange piece sticking out of the ground ready to install your ONT, which converts the light signals into internet. How neat is that? After this, you just need to register internet services to use your new fiber internet network. If you’re interested in learning more about or connecting to Northern Lights Fiber services you can check them out here!
It Can Get Messy
Progress is going very well, but with our variable Canadian weather things can get a little messy. Because we are building buried infrastructure under/in wet ground, progress on our new construction will require a bit of a mess to complete properly. Follow our Facebook page to keep yourself updated as we get updates from CFOC to connect you sooner!
Remediation
This is underground construction, which means there are holes and small trenches for the fiber lines to run down! Although directional drills and vibratory plowing equipment reduce the amount of soil turned, there’s still a small mess. Sometimes, the earth is required to settle for a bit following snow melting, rainy conditions, and the ground shifting naturally. But fear not, remediating anything effected by work and ensuring that it will return to its healthiest form in suitable time will be completed as soon as possible.
The team will wait for the proper weather and ground conditions so the soil can properly settle. At that point, the earth is set to final grade and new grass seed is planted for your lawn to regrow to its previous health! It is a small price required to pay to keep construction moving so homes and businesses can get connected as fast as possible!
How do I sign up for Northern Lights Fiber internet!?
If you would like to register for service now, check out our world-class products and services HERE!(And remember, you will NOT be charged anything until the service officially begins after installation).
Visit our Products and Pricing page or give us a call at 1-888-CFO-2947 (ext 2, for Sales)
