by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Dec 01/97) - A project linking every NWT community to the information age has Northern some Internet companies feeling threatened.

The GNWT signed a $25-million contract with Ardicom Digital Communications Inc. earlier this year. Under the five-year agreement, Ardicom agreed to provide a network that would give Internet access to every community, as well as videoconferencing, long-distance medical diagnoses and more.

As Ardicom's "anchor tenant," the GNWT will enjoy unlimited access to the network. In other words, say some Internet companies, their largest customer is about to wave goodbye and join the competition.

Inuvik TV president Tom Zubko said government clients make up 25 to 30 per cent of his business.

"The people that pioneered this service in communities are taking a real big blow from government," said Zubko. Ardicom "will take a decent business we've worked real hard to develop, and turn it into a marginal business at best."

Fort Smith's Auroranet company president Don Jaque said the Ardicom deal creates a dangerous monopoly that may kill off many smaller Internet providers. The deal "goes against everything our government has stood for in its efforts to foster job creation and develop home grown Northern industry," said Jaque.

Ken Todd, general manager of Ardicom Digital Communications Inc., conceded the deal may snatch away government clients from the Internet companies. But Todd said it also offers the companies new opportunities to expand into smaller communities.

Ardicom will only build the network -- it has no intention of selling Internet service to the private sector, said Todd. That's where the Internet companies come in, he said.

"Once the network is in place, it will be cost-effective for these companies to expand into smaller communities, where they couldn't go before."

Rather than stifle the industry, he said, Ardicom will provide new opportunities for providers, in areas such as Web page design, computer services and other areas.

Zubko disagrees. Even with a network in place, he said, removing the cream from the market -- government clients -- will chill any plans for expansion.

Zubko also pointed out that Ardicom is an inferior system to what his company offers. Inuvik TV is one of the first Internet providers in North America to provide cable modem Internet service, at a blistering speed of two bits per second -- hundreds of times faster than existing telephone-line based services.

Even Ardicom's network provides only 64,000 speed, 30 times slower than Inuvik TV's network. Ardicom also plans to install a second information pipe of 384,000 speed, for videoconferencing and other so-called "high-bandwidth" applications.

NorthwesTel is a partner in Ardicom, along with Arctic Cooperatives Ltd. and Northern Aboriginal Services Company. The phone company's communications equipment already in place in most communities is being used to tie the project together.

NorthwesTel's involvement has Jaque concerned, as a businessman and as a citizen. "Northwestel already has a monopoly, and it's being handed another one," said Jaque. "And we all know how well Northwestel serves its customers," he added.

Ardicom Digital Communications Inc. leaped another high-tech hurdle last month in its plan to link all NWT communities to a digital information web by next year.

Ardicom's technology delivered as promised, in a test in Yellowknife. Linked by satellite, Calgary's Foothills Hospital, Yellowknife's Stanton Hospital and the GNWT's Stewart Hodgson building exchanged high-speed video transmissions of a mock patient at Stanton.

Information like the patient's heart rate and X-ray images were sent over Ardicom's network, as doctors at both ends traded information on how to cure the "patient."

The success of the project, says Ken Todd, general manager of Ardicom, suggests that the same network could be used to connect Sachs Harbour nurses to Calgary doctors, or any community for that matter.

"The results are great," said Todd. "We've eliminated most of the technical hurdles."

Because NorthwesTel is a partner in Ardicom, the satellite equipment needed for such a network already exists in most communities, said Todd. That will speed implementation of Ardicom, which should by completed by late June of next year, he said.

Eleven communities along the Mackenzie Valley serviced by microwave towers instead of satellites are having dishes installed late this year. Work at Inuvik and Norman Wells, for example, should be completed by Christmas, said Todd.

Iqaluit, Hay River and Rae-Edzo are already hooked into the network, but need to be field tested and approved by the GNWT before they go on-line, said Todd.

Ardicom must submit a progress report to the GNWT by the end of this week, proving the project is on track. Todd said he's confident Ardicom will have no trouble meeting the deadline.