Nunavut fibre link possible, but costly: study

It wouldn’t be cheap and it definitely wouldn’t be easy, but a fibre-optic cable system for Nunavut is technically possible, finds a report issued by the Nunavut Broadband Development Corp..

A fibre optic solution for Nunavut’s longstanding telecommunication woes is possible, but it’s loaded with risk and could cost at least $1 billion and possibly more, said a report issued May 8 by the Nunavut Broadband Development Corp..

The report arrives in the wake of growing complaints about the quality of Nunavut’s overstretched, satellite-driven telecommunications system, which crashed almost entirely this past Oct. 6 when a software screw-up put the Anik F2 satellite out of action for most of the day.

Done by a team of expert consultants that the broadband corporation commissioned earlier this year, the report lays out two big fibre-optic possibilities for Nunavut:

• connections for 24 of 25 communities at a cost of slightly more than $1 billion, with Sanikiluaq being left out and served instead by a Nunavik network;

• connections for only the three regional centres, Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay, at a cost of at least $342 million.

At the same time, Nunavut would need a new higher-speed satellite system as a back-up.

“It is critical that concurrent investment in high-throughput satellite will be required to serve non-fibre linked communities, and to provide effective back up in the event of a fibre failure,” the report said.

The report doesn’t say how much such a concurrent satellite system would cost.

But the current generation of satellites used to deliver telephone, cable television, cell phone and primitive forms of broadband internet to Nunavut are expected to retire around 2020.

To replace them, the federal government is looking at wider bandwidth alternatives, such as the dual-satellite Polarsat proposal and more powerful “high throughput” satellite spacecraft.

The report says these high throughput satellites are the best way to continue satellite-based delivery of telecommunications in Nunavut.

“Using the recently launched ViaSat 1 satellite as an example, future expanded high speed broadband coverage is technically possible for all communities in Nunavut,” the report said.

As for undersea fibre-optic, the report warns of numerous financial, environmental and technical risks and other potential problems that need more study.

These include:

• protecting undersea cable from damage by ice, tides and commercial fishing;

• “scouring” damage caused by icebergs:

• the lack of accurate bathymetric information about the sea bottom and accurate nautical chart information;

• the potential cost of an environmental review and permitting activities, involving at leasat nine federal and territorial agencies;

• the problem of how to maintain and repair such a remote cable, especially under sea ice;

• the installation of local cable landing spots in communities with sensitive environmental areas;

• laying cable amidst difficult ice conditions;

• the high cost of such a system when compared with a “relatively small telecommunications demand profile,” which in plain language means Nunavut’s tiny population and limited ability to pay.

And an undersea fibre optic cable isn’t necessarily the only way to supply Nunavut with better telecommunications, the report said.

In it, the consultants lay out scenarios where fibre-optic could be combined with digital microwave repeater stations for communities close to fibre optic landing spots, and possible combinations of satellite and cable.

“Any serious plan for fibre backbone investment must consider how to mix fibre and satellite so that any difference in service levels can be managed for the socioeconomic growth of the entire territory,” the report said.

The report also lists existing proposed schemes to supply various parts of the Arctic with some form of fibre-optic cable.

They include:

• plans by Northwestel to install fibre links to various Nunavut communities;

• the Arctic Fibre Europe-to-Asia proposal, which would link up with Tuktoyaktuk, Cambridge Bay and Gjoa Haven, with a separate fibre cable from Iqaluit to Milton, Nfld.;

• a Europe-to-Asia plan proposed by Arctic Link, a scheme that could connect Cambridge Bay, Resolute Bay and some Baffin communities;

• a Mackenzie Valley fibre link from Fort Simpson to Inuvik;

• A TeleGreenland plan to connect northwest Greenland communities to the fibre hub at Nuuk.

The creation of fibre-optic cable landing spots at communities is no easy task either, the report said.

In Iqaluit, for example, cable would have to buried under the seabed of Frobisher Bay for at least seven kilometres to protect it from damage caused by ice, tidal action, fishing and boat anchorages.

This also means the use of “drill shots,” or vertical holes drilled from shore into designated spots under the sea.

And at Rankin Inlet, shallow water extending out to Marble Island could be a problem, as well as the changeable nature of the seabed due to the movement of sediments by currents.

The study was financed by money from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.

“The report will be useful in policy discussions on solutions for the long-term telecommunication needs of Nunavut and indeed Canada’s Arctic,” Darrell Ohokannoak, the president of the broadband corporation, said in a news release.

You can read the report here.