University of New Brunswick in Canada offers electronic
Ray Van Eng (02/04/97)
The program is aimed at preparing students to be proficient in a business environment that makes heavy use of the Internet, intranet, and other online business transaction practices. Entrepreneurial spirits in creating business applications and services using an electronic infrastructure are very much encouraged. The five partners have each committed Cdn$200,000 over a three year period to fund the project. With traditional maritime industries such as fishing and mining rapidly waning, the province of New Brunswick is very aggressive in promoting itself as a place where business is conducted via electronic means. Many companies have taken the heed and invested there. For example, Moncton, NB is the 1-800 toll free customer service and telecommunication center for United Parcel Services (UPS) in Canada. COSMO21 notes that New Brunswick is in the forefront of telecommunication technology in North America. Since 1993, 80% of the people living in the province is being served by a giant fibre optics ring and a fully digital switching network installed by the NBTel. Works are now being done to lay coaxial cables that would eventually hook-up homes and businesses to the fibre optics ring. An interesting project is a multimedia kiosk system used for telemedicine. The service allow a two way video and audio communication between residents in the tiny community of Paquetville and pharmacists in Saint John's MEDITrust center. The kiosk known as 'Pharma-Phone' would scan prescriptions, handle credit card transactions and provide receipts for customers. With the help of Nortel and the use of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology, NBTel is beginning to offer commercial broadband multimedia services transmitting video, audio and data right to the home. NBTel is watching the development of their "VideoActive Network" very closely, paying special attention in collecting data about network usage, user profiles and how people are using the network "to help them do everyday things better". According to a spokesperson from Nortel, "We have now in New Brunswick a test bed that's going to be what everybody in North America will have soon." |
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