Canada's Small Towns Can't Compete Without This | Internet
Birket Foster of Storm Internet joins Knack 4 Business to explain how fiber-speed wireless is closing the rural connectivity gap — and why upload speed, smart farming, and network resilience are changing the game for Canadian businesses.
Hosts: Bernie Franzgrote + Wayne Pratt
Birket Foster of Storm Internet joins Knack 4 Business to explain how rural broadband, upload speed, and smart farming are reshaping business in Eastern Ontario.
GROWTH CATEGORY: Cybersecurity & IT
Rural Canada isn't short on ideas. It's short on upload speed.
Birket Foster has spent decades solving that. As the leader of Storm Internet, he's built 262 towers across 8,000 square kilometres of Eastern Ontario — bringing fiber-speed wireless to the farms, small towns, and businesses that big telecom skips over. In this episode, he breaks down exactly what that takes, what it makes possible, and why the digital divide is really an economic development problem in disguise.
Watch the full conversation here:
WHO THIS IS FOR
SMB owners / Rural entrepreneurs / Farmers going digital / Municipal leaders / Solopreneurs working remotely / Corporate escapees building outside the city
Key Lessons
Upload speed is the real bottleneck — not download.
Everyone talks about download speed. But video conferencing, cloud software, file sharing, and screen sharing all need upload. Birket has seen businesses grind to a halt because their connection couldn't push enough data up. His team now offers 300 down and 50 up to rural customers — and for businesses with multiple simultaneous calls, 100 up is closer to the minimum. If your provider isn't talking about upload, they're not giving you the full picture.
Fixed wireless can now match fiber — for less.
Storm delivers fiber-equivalent speeds wirelessly. No buried cable. No pole-hung fiber. Just a properly engineered tower network using next-generation 120-degree sector antennas — meaning three sectors cover what used to take four. Birket's team tests every technology in a lab first, then on the Storm rooftop, then with select customers before full rollout. That discipline means fewer surprises and more trust in communities where reputation travels fast.
Smart farming is live — and it changes the math for rural business.
Storm now serves 150-plus smart farms across Eastern Ontario. Automated milking. Grain silo moisture tracking. Herd management systems. Camera feeds in birthing pens. Shop Wi-Fi for repair tutorials. These aren't pilot projects — they're running operations. When a farmer can automate the 4 AM feeding and get real-time alerts on grain moisture from a phone, the labour equation changes. So does the case for staying rural.
Practical Steps
- Run an upload speed test today. Tools like fast.com or speedtest.net show both up and down. If your upload is under 10 Mbps and you're on cloud apps or video calls, you have a problem worth fixing.
- Ask your ISP about failover. If your primary connection drops, what's the backup? A wireless secondary can keep a cloud-dependent business running when buried fiber gets cut by a backhoe.
- If you're in rural Eastern Ontario, call Storm. They take an address and figure out the best way to connect it — wireless, fiber, or a hybrid. Reach Storm Internet at 613-567-6585 or visit storm.ca.
About Birket Foster
Birket Foster has been connecting systems, people, and opportunities since the late seventies. He launched MBFoster.com out of Carleton University and built it into a global software company selling across 48 US states and 38 countries. When limited rural internet threatened innovation in Eastern Ontario, he didn't wait — he built Storm Internet. He led its privatization in 2003 and full acquisition in 2020. Today Storm serves thousands of customers with a team that knows the communities they serve. Connect with Birket on LinkedIn or through storm.ca.
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FAQ
Why does upload speed matter more than download for rural businesses? Most internet plans are built around streaming — which needs download. But modern work runs on video calls, cloud software, and file sharing — all of which need upload. A 100 down / 5 up connection will drop your camera in a video call and freeze shared screens. Birket's recommendation: look at upload first, then decide what you need on the download side based on your actual applications.
What's the difference between Wi-Fi, cellular internet, and a building connection? Wi-Fi is local — it moves signal inside your building. Cellular internet comes through a phone or hotspot — it works for one person but falls apart for teams. A proper building connection brings a dedicated line into your space, then Wi-Fi distributes it internally. Birket draws a sharp line between these: hotspotting a team off one phone is not a business internet solution.
How does Storm decide where to build new tower infrastructure? Storm looks at geography, population density, existing high points, expected growth, and whether the economics make sense over the long run. They work with municipal councils directly, assess community need, and evaluate what kind of internet — residential, commercial, or agricultural — is actually required. Then they build for that specific mix, not a one-size-fits-all deployment.
K4B Acknowledgements
Carl Richards — Podcast Solutions Made Simple
Fred Crouch — Property Wizard
Jovan Strika — @Hive
Melanie Webber
