“We are aware of the issue and working urgently towards a permanent solution,” Tamaani said this week about the outages and spotty bandwidth in Nunavik this fall. (Image courtesy of the Kativik Regional Government)
Nunavik’s main internet provider says it’s looking to solve outages
“It’s ridiculous how it is 2020 and we still don’t have a good internet connection”
Nunavik communities say they’re dealing with crippling slow bandwidth and outages this fall, making it difficult to rely on internet access for work and personal needs.
In Kangiqsualujjuaq, residents said this past weekend was the fourth one in a row where local Tamaani customers had no internet access all weekend, and bandwidth has been spotty through the week as well.
“Internet was out in town three weekends straight last month, and I still got a bill to pay for the full month,” complained one Kangiqsualujjuaq customer, who didn’t want to be named.
“I emailed [Tamaani] to ask for a discount but no reply—I tried to call, but no answer.”
Across the region, many users say they can no longer stream video at all.
In Ivujivik, customers said the entire community had no internet connection for a period of time in September. Tamaani technicians finally came to upgrade modems, but residents say bandwidth is still unstable in most of the community’s homes.
“The only places where the internet functions are the airport and the school,” said Ivujivik resident Milena Racheva. “It’s ridiculous how it is 2020 and we still don’t have a good internet connection.”
Tamaani, the Kativik Regional Government-owned internet provider, responded to some of those complaints this week in a social media post.
“Some communities are being affected by intermittent outages,” Tamaani said on Monday, Oct. 5. “We are aware of the issue and working urgently towards a permanent solution.”
Tamaani didn’t indicate what was causing the outages but said its network operations team is “working hard to get his technical issue(s) resolved.”
The internet provider said it would apply credits to customer accounts to compensate for the outages.
The KRG said it’s increased its satellite capacity to the region by 25 per cent annually—year over year—since 2002, but its internet provider still struggles to keep up with growing demand in the region.
The KRG is now waiting to hear back about its application to the CRTC’s broadband fund, in the hope of securing $27 million to update satellite capacity in the region over five years. Confirmation of that funding should come this fall.
Tamaani is already planning a major bandwidth boost across Nunavik that should be in place by 2022, with the construction of a new underwater fibre optic cable from Chisasibi to Puvirnituq underway. Kuujjuaq will connect to Schefferville’s fibre optic network via microwave towers, while the rest of the region’s communities will get increased satellite capacity.
Everyone should be compensated for this terribly unacceptable service. It should be class action compensation. Third world gets better service then what we get. It affects personal and business alike. Little kids are growing up with a famous say: “it’s loading” . It’s always loading , but it always never loads. The runners of the show at KRG should respond to the population and get this compensation on the go stat. And lower the fees until they get a real internet in place. It must be hard on them thou, hands tied, working a job, but a useless result, day in day out.
We are the 4th world , when it comes to the internet
The people working there are the hand picks by friends and relatives. They’re not qualified to do anything. They’re send instructions from the south, and they usually get it wrong. If they are the ones advocating for internet, then we are in trouble big time , with no solution in sight.
Like everthing in the north , it not what you know, its who you know.
When it comes to KRG, the internet services are the manifestation of KRG and its staff. I’m thinking if the Quebec government could do something, of if the Feds could they would. But internet as we know it in Nunavik is the brain child of the directives of kRG. What you see about, is what is. Everything that works out well at KRG is not from the thinking of KRG.
“It’s ridiculous how it is 2020 and we still don’t have a good internet connection.”
Yeah because in [current year] everything is magically supposed to work? People who use the year to say it doesn’t work are so stupid. There is no internet connection or stable power grid in some poor country in africa , should we also blame the [current year] for the problems?
The year 2020 is symbolic to the progress that the world should be experiencing. It’s not that magical to have internet today, it’s among the simplest everyday thing. Africa don’t have it, Nunavik don’t have it.
Canada is in last place with internet and cell phone service in the development and most 3rd world countries. At least 20 years behind with internet fibre connections.
Just take a look at the other countries and their internet connections, Svalbard, northern Scandinavia, Russia, all have fibre optics internet for over a decade now.
Infrastructure is always made more difficult then it has to be in Canada for some weird reason.
There is nothing weird about it…….. it’s called population density. We have an extremely low population density ……. so the cost of infrastructure must be divided up among much fewer people.
If you don’t live near an urban centre, then you likely have the same complaint about internet.
Yes it is weird. It’s weird because there’s incredible amounts of money spent on useless things and fat salaries, especially people from the south, here doing nothing only adding to the welfare take all. This is Canada , a share the wealth country. That’s why we have provinces and territories. It’s so the have nots, can get equally from the haves. Until which time the have nots might be able to make it and give a share back. Nothing weird , just weird attitudes. And idiots that fall for status quo, and accept whatever comes.
“population density” i totally agree with that, in fact (it’s sad) but maybe to much villages, few villages should be open only for summer…Question: do we have enough money in our pockets to substain 14 villages?