Northwestel confirms big internet expansion to all of Nunavut

Dean Proctor, left, of SSi Micro tells listeners at a seminar on broadband in the North to pay attention to which communities are given access to better internet service over the coming years. The panel discussion held Sept. 19 at the Nunavut Trade Show, follows a Sept. 18 announcement by Northwestel to triple its internet speed in Nunavut, and expand to all 25 communities. Northwestel’s chief operating officer, Curtis Shaw, is on the right. (PHOTO BY BETH BROWN)

Four days after receiving $49.9 million from the federal government, Northwestel used the Nunavut Trade Show to announce that by 2019, they will extend internet and cell phone service to all 25 Nunavut communities at download speeds of 15 Mbps and an increased data cap of 100 Gb.

Right now, Northwestel offers internet in only four Nunavut communities at download speeds of up to only five Mbps. Internet users in most of Nunavut communities are served by SSI Micro’s Qiniq network.

The Sept. 19 announcement said Northwestel will offer the plan, branded as Tamarmik Nunaliit, through Telesat’s Telstar 19 satellite, which will be launched in 2018.

Bell Mobility, owned by Northwestel’s parent company, Bell Canada Enterprises, will also use the new network to expand 4G LTE wireless service, also to every Nunavut community

The federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, made the funding announcement in Iqaluit Sept. 14.

Northwestel’s chief operating officer, Curtis Shaw, outlined the details of his company’s new plan during a seminar at the Nunavut Trade Show, held at the Arctic Winter Games Arena in Iqaluit Sept. 19.

Shaw did not say how much his company would charge customers for its new service.

But the new program is not a fix-all solution, said Shaw, when a seminar attendee noted that the Northwestel announcement came off as optimistic, and that the company was sure to make a profit from the upgrade.

What Shaw, and other panellists—from SSI Micro, the Alaska company GCI, the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.—said they want is a move away from patchwork funding models that change with each federal government.

Instead, they want a long-term plan to increase broadband capacity in Nunavut.

Their consensus is that the territory needs a stronger “backbone” for broadband, by way of increased satellites and fibre optic cables.

Northwestel’s Tamarmik Nunaliit program is itself made possible by Ka-band satellite technology that will be available next year on Telesat’s Telstar 19 satellite.

The satellite providers have three satellites that service Nunavut and plan to have two more online by next year, Telesat’s Elaine Robichaud said during the seminar.

This is on top of a pilot project for global LEO, or “low earth orbit” satellites, the first prototype for which will be launched in November, Robichaud said.

The global satellites would have an orbit altitude allowing low latency networks that Robichaud claimed would be like “fibre in the sky.”

“These services are truly critical for Nunavummiut when you are talking about health care and education,” said Lori Kimball of the GN’s CGS department said.

While she said the GN would champion the northern internet industry by pursuing funding for Nunavut, she made no mention of broadband dollars coming from the territorial government.

“There’s still a lot to be done,” said Dean Proctor of SSI Micro, the operator of Nunavut’s Qiniq network.

The company provided service to the Canada 150 C3 ship for it’s 23,000 kilometre journey across Canada’s three coasts, marking the first time a ship has received full broadband internet service while transiting the Northwest Passage.

“We’re not there yet,” he said, but for those interested, he said policy developments from the CRTC and federal funding for communications infrastructure are good things to keep an eye on.

The CRTC ruled in December 2016 that, no matter where they live, the base level of internet connectivity speed that Canadians deserve is 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload.

At a territorial level, his advice was: “pay attention to who gets served and who doesn’t, and which communities are served and which are left out. Pay attention to who in the communities gets access and who can’t afford it.”

To that end, the Nunavut Economic Forum is holding a meeting to assess interest in the development of a Nunavut Telecom Task Force.

The meeting will be held Sept. 21 at 2 p.m., at the Baffin Room of Iqaluit’s Frobisher Inn.

Northwestel is using promotional material like this to brag about the new network it will install in Nunavut by 2019, called Tamarmik Nunaliit.