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NUNAVUT
If mobile Internet is the future, Nunavut's systems need a fair bit of work to catch up.

Former Joint Task Force North commander Lt. Col. Bertrand Poisson brings his logistics experience to NorthwesTel's Nunavut office, where he is the new general manager. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

NorthwesTel's new Nunavut manager Bertrand Poisson, a former Joint Task Force North commander who spent 32 years in the military before taking over logistics for NorthwesTel in 2008, witnessed this firsthand when he drove his household effects from Whitehorse to Montreal en route to Iqaluit.

"Coming from an urban community, I'm not fine with it," he said when comparing the situation in Nunavut to the south. "I've heard a lot of issues about the fact that we are lagging. At the end of the day, what can I do now going forward?"

Improving NorthwesTel's cellular phone service is a top priority. Poisson praised the test of a small smartphone-ready 3G cellular network at the Nunavut Trade Show and at the NorthwesTel office this month, where he showed Nunavut News/North the technology Oct. 2.

"People want more. This is what drives the technology down south. We have gone through the technology barrier," he said, noting that until September, the company was unable to connect a 3G network to satellites, "so we know it (3G in Iqaluit) is possible."

With that test a success, the company must now scale the technology to meet the promises of its modernization plan, which aims to have 3G service throughout the North within five years.

"But you cannot expect to have 3G deployed simultaneously in Iqaluit and Grise Fiord. We don't even have cell service right now in Grise Fiord."

Big investments are needed to make a territory-wide cellular network upgrade a reality, as well as to bring southern broadband Internet to the North. Witness the battle between satellite provider Telesat and fibre-optic proponent Arctic Fibre to bring more broadband Internet service to the North.

"If we start to see bandwidth as infrastructure, I don't see it as any different from a highway," Poisson said. "Iqaluit's going to have to stand up, and say, we're remote but we're a capital who want to enjoy the same benefits as a capital down south. Our people deserve to have the same level of communication. We've demonstrated it's possible, but at what cost? We don't know yet."

On the cellular side, NorthwesTel will spend $233 million – or $273 million if the CRTC approves Bell Canada's buyout of Astral Media – to bring smartphone-capable 3G service to all of the communities it serves in the North. On the broadband side, NorthwesTel currently buys time from Telesat, but Poisson is eager to see Arctic Fibre successfully bring fibre-optic broadband to parts of Nunavut.

Both broadband providers are eager to dominate the scene. Under the Arctic Communications Infrastructure Initiative, Telesat wants to spend $160 million – $40 million of that coming from Telesat and the rest from the government – to upgrade its infrastructure throughout the North. Arctic Fibre says it will find private funding for a $600 million broadband fibre optic line from England to Japan with nodes in major Nunavut centres.

"I see both as valuable, as complementary," Poisson said. "I want to provide the best service for the customer. Satellite is here right now. We're using it every day, and we have technology that allows for adding performance to the bandwidth, that is able to draw less bandwidth for the same performance. Once fibre is here, we will assess if it's economically feasible to connect with them.

Either way, the next five years will see a communications revolution in the North, and the former Canadian Forces lieutenant-colonel is eager to be part of it.

"I'm seeing this as a battlefield, essentially," he said. "At the end of the day, I want to assert our market dominance. I come from a background where hope is not an option, always having a vision and realizing goals through solid plans. I'm here to deliver."

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