What is the cost for high speed service?

• Click here to see the various broadband packages and pricing.

• The cost of a residential dial-up account is about $25 per month, and a residential phone line costs $30 a month, so you may currently be paying as much as $55 for dial-up service. If you compare that price with our broadband packages offered by GNI, you will see that GNI's residential services can cost you less than $50 per month, but provide you with all the benefits of a broadband connection. If you do not currently have a separate telephone line for your Internet connection, consider the cost of having missed an important phone call while you were busy surfing the 'Net! To paraphrase a popular commercial's claim, "Cost of high speed Internet: $49.95/month. Cost of not missing any more phone calls: Priceless!" More importantly, the value of the broadband services provided by GNI, namely, it's reliability, convenience and speed, set it head-and-shoulders above it's antiquated competition, dial-up service, in today's high speed world. Discerning customers who demand quality and value for their hard-earned money know that premium service of any kind commands a premium price, and GNI's broadband Internet service is second to none in providing that kind of value.

• No, the wireless technology that GNI uses to deliver high speed Internet to your business or home never makes any use of any telephone line at all. The Internet signal is delivered to your house via radio frequencies. There are no phone lines or telephone modems to contend with. There is no need to purchase a second telephone line, or "tie up" the telephone line you currently have; they are not used by GNI's broadband service.

• The newer your computer, the faster it will likely feel to surf the 'Net. Older computers will work with high speed, but you won't likely be getting full value out of your connection. Generally speaking, you'll get the best results if you computer is less than 3 years old, and generally feels responsive when you carry out various tasks, ie. opening programs or switching between tasks.

• Unlike satellite signals, which can drop out during a rain- or snow storm, GNI uses wireless technology that is not easily affected by adverse weather conditions. Our high speed service has an excellent track record for reliability since it's start in June of 2002. That said, certain antennas that we have to use for customers living further away from our base stations, by virtue of their extremely sensitive tuning, do not perform well when covered by freezing rain/ice. That kind of weather is rare (twice since 2002), but when it happens, those customers usually do not have Internet service for a few hours or a day, until the wind or warmer weather gets rid of the layer of ice on the antenna.
  

• Step 1- Make sure you live within GNI's current signal coverage area.
• Step 2 - If you are located inside our current coverage area, click here to sign up for service.
• Step 3 - GNI will contact you and arrange for a convenient time to come and install the equipment and get you up and running!

• Yes, as the individual who applied for- and will be paying for Internet service, you need to be present during the installation because GNI needs to know where your computer is located within your house or office, where the best place is to mount the antenna and related hardware, run the cable, etc. You will also need to complete the Sign Up form and provide the installer with your payment of the Network Activation fee.

• This depends on how far away you are from our base stations, how high your house or building is and what kind of structures or trees are located between you and GNI's closest distribution tower. Most buildings within a mile of our Internet base stations (see the Coverage Area for details) will receive an adequate signal using a small outdoor radio. Most two-story houses up to 3 miles away from the closest base station will be able to get away with an under-the-eaves-mounted or roof-mounted antenna on a satellite mounting bracket. Farther away than that, a combination of extra height (using an existing tower or structure near your house, or by mounting a tripod and mast or a pop-up mast on your building) and a higher-gain antenna can be used to get the signal strength required for a reliable Internet connection. When the GNI installer arrives on-site to do your Internet install, he will first perform a site survey of your location to determine what, if any, extra materials and/or equipment may be required to deliver the signal to your location. You will be informed of any extra costs related to equipment or labour required to bring a reliable signal to your home or business. At that point, you may choose whether you still want to go ahead with service or not.

• Depending on the package you choose, the average download speeds range from 30 - 120 times faster than dial-up service, depending on many variables outside of GNI's control, such as the speed and capacity of the server you are downloading from, the load on our network or the speed and stability of your own PC.
  

• No, the switch from dial-up to wireless is totally transparent; nothing changes as far as browsing the Web or e-mailing is concerned. Since you're always connected, you don't have to worry about getting a busy signal from the server you're trying to dial in to. All you do is fire up your web browser or e-mail client and you're on-line.
  

• Yes. The number of e-mail accounts you get is determined by the package you sign up for.

• No, your computer can stay connected for the entire month, there is no time limit or restrictions on how long you are connected. Be sure you understand the bandwidth usage limit, discussed below, which has nothing to do with a time limit.

• Depending upon which package you signed up for, you have a basic monthly bandwidth (upload and download combined) traffic limit that is included in the base price. This is called a "soft limit" because you are not prevented from going over that limit if you continue to upload or download more files. If you exceed this limit, GNI will contact you and ask you to slow down your Internet usage so as to avoid being charged a per-GB fee for bandwidth overusage. Other ISP's may also offer 'unlimited' data transfers, however, there is NO SUCH THING; every Internet service provider has a finite amount of data that they are willing to allocate to a customer. If you go beyond that amount, they may notify you, they may extra-bill you, or they may simply disconnect you. We simply believe in being up front with you about what those limits are.

• If you come to the realization that the package you are subscribed to does not meet your needs very well, you can upgrade or downgrade to a different package by calling or sending an e-mail to GNI requesting the change. We'll need you to complete a form and then your new plan will come into effect.
  

• As long as you're not breaking the law or using an unfair amount of GNI's network capacity and affecting other customer's Internet experience, you are free to provide those services on your connection. Please be aware of the bandwidth usage limits for your account. If you are into file-swapping software like KaZaa or Bearshare, remember to limit the number of users who can access your computer at once, or you'll end up with additional bandwidth charges because everyone on the Internet will want to download songs from your computer via your connection.

• Fill out the Sign Up form by clicking here. If you don’t currently have Internet access, call GNI at 204.746.2739 to get the ball rolling.