(Reprinted from Ottawa Citizen Sept. 2, 2000)

International Datacasting Corp., which sells its satellite network services around the world, has begun a major expansion of its infrastructure for high-speed wireless Internet service that will stretch from Ottawa as far as Brockville.

The project will expand the network's reach from about 4,000 square kilometres in the Ottawa-Hull region now to about 25,000 square kilometres within two to three months, according to Ron Clifton, president and chief executive officer.

Along with expanding the reach of the service, the project is also expanding the bandwidth to provide high speed service to public facilities, high-tech companies and homes, Mr. Clifton said.

IDC, which completed Thursday its previously announced $4-million acquisitions of Storm Internet and CDS/Prometheus, wasted no time in launching its expansion plans. Mr. Clifton said an undisclosed amount of funding for a major expansion of Storm's high-speed wireless network was transferred to the IDC subsidiary yesterday.

When the deals were announced in July, IDC, which specialized in selling satellite networking services globally, said acquisitions of local Internet Service Providers and related services would give it a complete range of networking services.

"We have the long mile with the satellite and the last mile with the wireless," he said. "It is up to us to decide how fast we want to grow."

Mr. Clifton declined to say how much the expansion would cost but said Storm already has the largest wireless Internet network in the region. Once the expansion is complete, it is believed it will be the largest network of its kind in North America, Mr. Clifton said.

"This is great news for high-tech, government and other customers looking for high-speed, wireless Internet access," Mr. Clifton said.