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Broadband access a go

Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (May 16/05) - The Internet is about to get a whole lot faster in Nunavut.

On May 11 broadband Internet service provided by SSI Micro had its "technical" launch in Arctic Bay, Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay, Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Sanikiluaq and Taloyoak.




Ed Maruyama of Nunanet checks out the new broadband Internet system on May 11 in Iqaluit. Seven communities across the territory now have high speed access. The other 18 communities are expected to have access by May 26. - Kathleen Lippa/NNSL photo


"It's a huge undertaking," said Lorraine Thomas, the project manager for Nunavut Broadband Development Corp., on May 11 during the Nunavut Trade Show in Iqaluit.

"There will be technical bumps and thumps along the way. We're talking about satellite dishes and sheds full of $350,000 worth of equipment in communities. I think it's phenomenal."

It cost Nunavut $10 million just to get broadband infrastructure in place.

Qiniq (the Inuktitut word meaning "to search") is the umbrella company overseeing broadband Internet service in Nunavut.

Nunanet is the local provider in Iqaluit.

Adamee Itorcheak, the owner of Nunanet, admits there have been many sleepless nights the last few years in preparation for broadband.

In Taloyoak, the local provider is putting the final touches.

"I'm nervous about launching it actually," said Jayko Neeveecheak at Polarnet last week. "I'm in training today," he said on Thursday, May 12. "People here are getting impatient for it, actually. We should have it by the end of the week."

Tim Hoyt in Sanikiluaq is excited about the launch of broadband.

"We're talking thousands of times faster than dial-up," he said. "Before broadband a two megabyte picture would take an hour to download. Now with broadband it will take fifteen seconds."

The official launch will take place at the Bay Shore Conference Centre in Rankin Inlet on May 26 when 25 Nunavut communities are supposed to be hooked up with broadband.

Two other companies, NorthwesTel and Cordell Satellite Systems, hope to have residential high speed access in a couple of months.