Yellowknife (Sep 22/03) - SSI Micro is hot on the heels of landing a $17-million contract.

The contract involves development of broadband throughout Nunavut, said president and CEO Jeff Philipp.

"It will be the single biggest project we have done to date, and a model for Canada when it's done," said Philipp.

The deal started to come together 18 months ago, said Ryan Walker, sales manager with SSI Micro. "The objective is to provide funding for smaller communities for broadband," he said.

The Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation is acting as the community champion on the project.

"We're waiting to hear from Industry Canada. Nunavut is slow in connecting to the Internet. One half of our communities aren't connected at all and no one other than Iqaluit has high speed," said Lorraine Thomas, the corporation's project manager.

"At one point they called for RFP's (requests for proposals) and they liked what we had to say," said Walker.

"I am very optimistic. The proposal we put together had all the right elements ... they are doing evaluations this week and we hope to hear back by the end of September to mid-October," said Walker.

The objective of the contract is to provide high-speed Internet to communities throughout Nunavut.

Even though the contract calls for two years to complete, Philipp is optimistic the work can be done within one calendar year.

"If we start in January we could be complete by Christmas," said Philipp.

"We're in 10 of 25 communities in Nunavut already," said Philipp.

The contract involves supplying everything from satellite dishes to wireless infrastructure, to working with the regional internet service providers, said Walker.

"The regional providers are also key players in offering services to the end user. We have a good working relationship with them and it made sense to continue on from everyone's point of view," said Walker.

While SSI Micro hopes to stay busy in Nunavut, at the same time they also have some action going in Africa.

Projects in Zambia and Nairobi are another significant step forward for SSI Micro, said Philipp.

The project in Nairobi will allow Care Canada to have connections to their field office with no long distance charges.

The plan involves voice messaging over the Internet at costs which are a fraction of normal long distance calling rates.

The same could be done in Nunavut through the 25 communities, should the telecommunications industry ever become deregulated.

If it does, SSI Micro will be there, helping to provide low-cost and high-speed communication systems, said Philipp.