CRTC looking for input on improving internet in the North
People have until Friday evening to respond
The CRTC opened a public consultation process this week, inviting comments on how to improve telecommunications services in the North, such as Telesat Canada’s satellite earth station in Iqaluit, seen here. (File photo)
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission wants to hear from the public how internet service in Nunavut can be improved.
The Government of Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services is working with the CRTC to get feedback from Nunavummiut, who have until Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. EST to offer input, a public service announcement says.
Access to reliable, affordable and high-quality telecommunications service is crucial for the social, economic and educational development of Nunavut’s communities, the announcement said.
The CRTC is conducting a Nunavut-wide community consultation seeking feedback on:
- How to improve services;
- How to reduce prices;
- Whether to create a subsidy to make internet services more affordable;
- How to foster competition; and
- How to strengthen dialogue between communities and providers.
The notice of consultation is available in all of Nunavut’s languages and input can be provided at the CRTC website or by fax at 819-994-0218.
Elon musk already solved the problems for you guys
Talk about a disconnect between the CRTC and canadas north, have they not heard about starlink, millions and millions of dollars in subsidy’s to northern company to give us snail speeds, yes give every starlink customer 50.00 dollars a month and problem solved. Fast reliable, cheap service stupid southerners
You do know that pretty much every electronic device, system, network… the ‘internet’ comes from ‘southerners’ right?
Yes USA southerners like starlink, Canadian southerners that have it all and don’t have to worry about internet, cell phones , stupid Canadian southerners
Can “None of it” provide the service?
Let alone find Tech Support among themselves?
Even Northwestel uses Starlink…but it’s built by Elon my-tesla-is-on-fire so I can’t trust the satellites to stay in orbit. What happened to fibre optics?
Absolutely nothing at Starlink, SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company or Twitter was build by Elon Musk. He’s just the idiot born with the purse-strings already in his hand.
It’s people like Elon Musk that make the world go ’round. Jealous much?
It’s people like the engineers hired by the companies he owns make the world go round.
And of course I’m jealous, lol. Who wouldn’t rather be born on third base?
He’s a visionary who had the guts to pursue big dreams and that has paid of for him, and for our society in general.
Of course, I am sure his accomplishments pale next to yours, John
Spent $44,000,000,000 on a company that makes no profit because his feelings were hurt and now he’s tanking it. How visionary!
He’s not a complete idiot, that’s for sure. He wouldn’t have so effectively duped so many people if he were. The only thing that separates the Elon Musks from the Adam Neumanns is luck.
Elon was born into a family of moderate wealth. He did not inherit billions, he created billions through founding companies and taking risks others would never take. Examples: Zip2, which netted him 22 million, X.com which merged with another company to become Paypal (ever heard of it?) which netted him around $175 million when it was sold to eBay, he reinvested that into SpaceX and Tesla… and others you mentioned. None of this was “inherited” as you imply. He took huge risks, followed a vision and that is why he is worth billions.
Such a weak, superficial analysis on your part, John.
Musk also accessed many billions of dollars of American tax dollars through green subsidies to start up Tesla and drive the company’s market price through the roof. As a result, Musk’s wealth really comes from leveraged loans driven by artificially high stock valuations of companies that in reality are not performing all that well, including SpaceX. Musk is a paper tiger whose innovation is driven by the creative people working for him.
All very true statements. Whether you’d wish Musk to be a guest in your home or marry your daughter, as it were, is an entirely different conversation. You don’t have to be a good, virtuous person to be financially successful. Many would even say that being good and virtuous is a hindrance in business.
Was hoping to see a comment like this. Reading Musk’s biography by Ashlee Vance would help some people understand Elon a little better. Love him or hate him, he has done amazing things, and is highly intelligent (despite not always looking like it on Twitter).
Transitioning from Northwestel to Starlink.
As a former customer of Northwestel in Canada’s North, my experience has been a journey of continuous disappointments. Northwestel’s reluctance to invest in meaningful infrastructure improvements without substantial government subsidies has led to several notable service failures:
Failure to Establish a Redundant Fibre Line for Yellowknife: A crucial project for improving service reliability that hasn’t been successfully implemented.
Inadequate Upload Speeds: Northwestel has not effectively scaled up upload speeds to match their download speeds, impacting overall internet performance.
Non-Competitive Pricing: Despite the advent of competitors like Starlink, Northwestel has not adequately adjusted its pricing to remain competitive. Their offerings, such as 5 Mbps with a 90 GB cap for $60/month and 15 Mbps with a 200 GB cap for $110/month, are overshadowed by Starlink’s faster and more comprehensive service.
My decision to switch to Starlink was fueled by these frustrations. The change has been nothing short of revolutionary. Starlink has consistently provided me with significantly faster speeds for both download and upload compared to my previous Northwestel package. Additionally, I enjoy a monthly cost saving of $60, making the service not only superior in quality but also more economical.
Starlink’s introduction to Canada’s North has been transformative. Users, myself included, enjoy impressively high speeds, with reports of 15 Mbps to 200 Mbps. The service is priced at $140 per month, which, while higher than some of Northwestel’s plans, offers truly unlimited data without any soft cap or throttling, even after exceeding 1TB of usage. This is a stark contrast to the data limitations imposed by other providers. The initial cost for the equipment (satellite dish, wifi router, cables, and base) is $759 plus shipping, but this investment pales in comparison to the long-term benefits of reliable, high-speed, unlimited internet access.
In terms of reliability, Starlink has proven to be robust, maintaining consistent service even in extreme weather conditions typical of our region. While there have been minor service issues reported, the overall feedback from users is overwhelmingly positive.
To sum up, switching to Starlink has been a game-changer for me. It’s not just about enjoying better internet service or the savings; it’s about breaking away from the monopolistic grip of a provider that has long dominated our region’s internet landscape without fully addressing the needs of its customers. Starlink’s unlimited, high-speed internet service represents a new era of connectivity and freedom for residents in Canada’s North.
All Haill, Elone Musk, Thanks you for better and Greater thing, like faster internet and battery car that goes up in Flame
MAKE DSL GREAT AGAIN
After all the money the feds have thrown around in the past 20 years !!!!!!
You have got to be kidding.
Someone should shake the archives and give us a list of the money and maybe an idea of where it went to improve the service
I would bet 100 of millions have been squandered in pipe dreams without any accountability
Thanks
The money was not squanderred.
The first of it went to make Internet access possible in the north.
After that proven to be possible, the money flowed through several intermediaries and eventually into the pockets of family and friends. The service was incidental.
And if you look behind the “curtain”, large amounts of our tax dollars are still going into projects for fibre to Iqaluit and to subsidize other new Internet initiatives.
So, where is the link to where one can provide input? And how much do they care when we have 3 days to comment once we hear about it with lout links from NN?
CRTC restricts Canadian media and access. Also promotes French, which is silly due to its lack of modern relevance and over inflated important because of its historical colonial history. CRTC doesn’t care.
Something like a third of the entire English language is of French origin. French is a very old language group with full comprehensive vocabularies for law, medicine, engineering, education. It is probably one of the most linguistically robust languages in Europe.
French is the reason we say we’re eating beef instead of we’re eating cow.
Ignorant of the constitution much? Drop the ‘colonial’ boogeyman and do try to understand the country that you live in. French is far more relevant to the modern running of our country than all the Indigenous languages combined multiplied by 100. Many people dislike such truths, but truths they are.
I am not a big fan of many of our French speaking brethern’s ways or cultural characteristics, that is for sure, but the statement that you have made here just demonstrates a profound ignorance of history, and the role of French, for better or worse, in this country.
Latin, John…. Latin. Think Roman Empire…
Hi Close,
When you include Roman Latin and all the languages that evolved from it the loanword composition of English increases to over half. Only a quarter of our Germanic language has direct Germanic roots.
French has had by far the greatest influence on English because after the Battle of Hastings the English Monarchy was largely French for a very long time. What’s more, French itself has almost as much Germanic influence as English through its evolution from Old Frankish. So, many of the English words that seem to be of Germanic origin actually derive from French words of Germanic origin
Your username is actually really fitting, but not for the reasons you probably expect. If not for your overly confident response I likely wouldn’t have had the opportunity to expand on my comment. So, thank you for that.
You’re being downvoted even though you’re right. I think people are mad at your comments about Daddy Elon.
He’s being down voted because his post is largely incoherent.
I’m having no problem understanding them and their info seems to be accurate.
If you’re having trouble comprehending their comment I think that may be a skill issue.
Google Matlock
FIBRE WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM THAT ALL IT IS NO MORE SATELLITE S!!T.
My experience has been, and I’m sure many have had similar experiences, is that fibre solves many issues and really works to keep things moving.
Fibre is a better option compared to Starlink, and Starlink is not meant to compete against areas served well with Fibre. The problem is there is no plan to get all communities in Nunavut connected, and the cost to bring it to a community of a couple hundred people generally cannot be justified. Fibre might be good for Iqaluit and other larger communities, but satellite will be serving the rest of Nunavut for a long time.
Elon Musk is a helluva drug.
Amen, I totally agree, and the southerners that come up north constantly whine, cry , and moan about all the services in the north, thanks Elon musk
get starlink
just buy starlink
I am not sure why the CRTC is engaging in these consultations for the umpteenth time. Every northerner knows what has to happen:
1. Take the northern telecommunication monopoly out of the hands of NorthwesTel and TeleSat Canada. Permit others companies to use existing northern telecomm. infrastructure and backbone to compete and offer lower-priced services. After all most of the infrastructure and associated bandwidth was built with taxpayer money so it really doesn’t belong to Northwestel anyway.
2. Focus all subsidies and future investments on getting fibre into the north as quickly as possible. Yes it will be expensive but it is eminently feasible and in the end it is the only way to ensure equitable and universal access,
3 Forget about LEO technologies they are reliant on technologies that are fragile and driven by pricing and consumer demand. As companies like SpaceX become more popular and more widely available, the bandwidth will clog up and speeds will continue to get slower and slower. Unless these companies continually invest in more northern-dedicated LEO Satellites (which is unlikely given the limited market share and low population density) this technology definitely has a best before date.
Whats was the subject again? comunication? RIGHT ?
Like, over price internet, Limited Gigs like 1990s, unrealable pricy bad iqaluit cable with nothing to watch on tv ? Right? if thats the subject how come haters start hating about french and english and spreed their hate on here? you gas so full of hate you change the subject to your adgenda, and on your menue as any other day or subject is: HATE, pickon some one,some others that are not like you and,well,wait a minute, thats call Rascist, oooooh hello my little rascist inuk hatter,you ve been bad this years, no gift from santa and no more cable lol
Ten actual paying customers in Nunavut and with a Rebel Yell they’re screaming….”More! More! More! I have rights!! You HAVE TO!!!!”😂😜
Nunavut -miut demanding more things they won’t pay for. Like rent and electrical bills. 😜
Nasa finds elon musk’ starlink signals obscuring for their studies and understanding of space. If they try to see through satelite, all they see is green beams of light. These beams are from starlink devices. They are in the way for nasa’s scientists and engineers. I find it troublesome. Elon musk “empire” will probably suffer a huge loss. Only one other internet provider is fast and also provides unlimited data. Which works up north too. But payment I cannot make probably due to security reasons. We as Inuit need to work together to create new technologies. No more who did this or that to this person. Forget all that and work together to improve our own lives. The government is not always going to help. We need to think. We need to innovate.