Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Paulatuuq (Dec 03/01) - The hamlet is working on a plan to build its own on-ramp to the information highway

With a new hamlet office being built next year, councillors wanted to make sure the building was properly wired for networking the office computers, says finance officer Bill Harding.

Then the idea came up to build a community network based in the hamlet office to connect different offices and provide affordable Internet access to residents.

Such a system would allow workers to send e-mails within the community without having to tap into expensive long-distance Internet servers.

Currently, there is no Internet service provider in Paulatuuq, so the community has to phone long distance whenever they need to get on the Internet. With charges calculated by the minute, costs add up quickly.

"If this all comes together, in my greatest wishes and dreams, we will be big time in Paulatuuq," Harding says.

The hamlet has contacted Deline's community-owned information technology company to see what can be done, and how much it might cost.

In Deline, nine community agencies, including the band office, lands administration office, school and bank, have joined together to set up a community network. The pilot project, called Access Deline, is the first of its kind in the territories.

"Instead of one organization having to get individual Internet access, which could cost thousands of dollars of year for low speed Internet, or tens of thousands for high speed Internet, everyone pools their financial resources," explains manager Sean Lynch. "We have basically created a community government platform that provides high speed Internet, e-mail, third-party data sharing, and shared access to printers and other network resources."

Since the project began in 1998, many additional features have been added, Lynch says. In August, Access Deline opened a computer room for residents to access the Internet.

Lynch says the eight public terminals are busy almost all day and so far, about 35 per cent of the population has signed up with accounts either at work, or through the Access Deline office. Students drop by to check their e-mail and play computer games, and adults do Internet banking or online catalogue shopping.

By the end of 2002, Lynch hopes to set up a community-owned Internet service provider that would allow residents to get on the Internet from home, for free or very low cost.

The community project has been so successful, Deline IT and Celerica Community Development Inc., the two companies that built Access Deline, are now trying to export their system to other communities.

Paulatuuq just might be one of their first customers.