Kuujjuaq pilot project could start as early as this fall

QUAQTAQ – Cell phones are nothing new to the approximately 100 Inuit who live in the James Bay Cree community of Chisasibi, which has enjoyed cell phone service since 2005.

Now, Makivik Corp. wants to bring cell phone technology to Nunavik.

A pilot project, which will likely be based in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik's largest community, could test the technology as early as next fall.

This was the good news delivered by Michael Gordon, Makivik vice-president for economic development, to delegates at the corporation's annual general meeting last week in Quaqtaq.

Makivik has asked at least three companies – SSI Micro Inc., Northwestel's NMI Mobility, and OmniGlobe Networks Inc. – to submit proposals on how cellular service might be offered in Nunavik.

OmniGlobe already supplies cellular service to the Naskapi community of Kawawachikamach, located to the south of Kuujjuaq and within the Kativik Regional Government's jurisdiction.

Last year, OmniGlobe and Naskapi Imuun Inc. partnered to deliver cellular communications to First Nations communities, starting in Kawawachikamach.

Under their joint venture model, partners in the communities will operate their own local cellular network, delivering mobile voice communication, text messaging and prepaid billing services.

In Nunavik, either Makivik or the KRG, which already operates the Tamaani internet service provider throughout Nunavik, could become the local partner.

The cellular service uses new satellite-cellular technology, which sees local networks linked up via satellite to global cellular and telephone networks.

However, there will be a cost to bringing cellular service to Nunavik. A KRG evaluation done in 2006 estimated that a cellular network could cost $5 million.

In Chisasibi, Télébec built a 91-metre high communications tower, spending $865,000 on the project.

Raymond Menarick, Chisasibi's Makivik board member, says the service works well and it's normal to see people walking around town as sending text messages to each other.

Cell phone service will also be available soon in the twin Cree-Inuit communities of Whapmagoostui and Kuujjuaraapik.

But cell phones won't replace CB radios, Gordon told the AGM, because their range will extend only 15 kilometres.

And the cell phone service all won't satisfy all users, either.

The KRG study noted there are two competing technologies used by cellular telephone providers: Bell Canada and Rogers use CDMA, short for "Code-Division Multiple Access," a digital cellular technology, while Telus and Fido rely on GSM, short for "Global System for Mobile Communications."

If cell phone users from the South want to use their phones in Nunavik, a regional system will only be able to satisfy about half of them, because Nunavik will have to opt for only one cellular technology.

But delegates at Makivik's annual general meeting appeared to be enthusiastic about any cell phone system in Nunavik, especially if it can be brought to the region's smaller communities.