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NUNAVUT
NorthwesTel Inc. is banking on the marketability of a faster Internet service in Nunavut, with the launch of a new broadband service in six communities.

Northwestel Inc. has launched next generation satellite Internet service in six Nunavut communities including Baker Lake, where a NorthwesTel satellite dish is pictured here outside the telecommunications company's central equipment office in Baker Lake. - photo courtesy NorthwesTel Inc.

Ka-Band -- the satellite technology launched this month to residential and business customers in Arviat, Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Kugluktuk and Rankin Inlet -- offers Internet speeds up to two-megabits per second, some 40 times faster than the roughly 56 kilobit per second dial-up services still used by some residents of the hamlets, said Curtis Shaw, NorthwesTel vice president of marketing.

"People in the home now are watching video, YouTube, they're using Skype and they're using all new technologies that weren't around a number of years ago, so the demand for bandwidth in Nunavut communities is continuing to grow and this is just one way we think we could meet that need," Shaw said. "We've been able to make a business case to bring it in with this new technology," he said of the new direct-to-home Ka-Band satellite dishes. "Depending on demand, I think this will be a very good service for Nunavut."

While the communities presently have access to a number of wireless and satellite Internet options through the Qiniq Network operated by NorthwesTel competitor SSI Micro and NorthwesTel's Netkaster service, the new service being launched by NorthwesTel is the fastest Internet experience available in Nunavut, said Shaw, estimating the fastest data speeds previously offered to be about 1.5 megabits per second.

"The service is newer, it's faster, it's got new equipment, new hardware that we haven't used before," he said.

The data-receiving satellite dishes connect to the outside of the residence or business and run inside to a modem connected to a computer or wireless router.

The launch was prompted by the "dramatically" improved dish technology, Shaw said, in addition to customer demands for faster Internet in the communities.

"It's kind of generally known that Internet here is slower than it is in the south," said Keith Collier, economic development officer for Arviat, noting faster Internet options are always sought after, especially by businesses in the remote hamlets.

"Everybody could always use faster Internet, especially up here where we're kind of isolated," Collier said.

"I know, in my position, I use Internet a lot for sending documents back and forth, doing research, that kind of thing.

"I think it would be great to do more video conferencing for training and things like that as a lot of training courses incorporate instructional videos on YouTube, that kind of thing, so the more access we have to resources the better."

The launch is separate from NorthwesTel's proposed $270 million infrastructure modernization plan currently before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which would see 3G and 4G wireless services rolled out across the North, enabling expanded mobile wireless services.

"This is a service we didn't think we needed to wait until we had approval on the modernization plan, we had an opportunity to launch it now," Shaw said, adding "a number of these communities over the next five years would get advanced wireless services."

Based on demand, NorthwesTel plans to roll out the service in more Nunavut communities later this year.

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