NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Falcon Communications is well on its way towards its goal of establishing both cellphone service and quality Internet services in every community in the NWT.
Darrell Beaulieu, president and CEO of Falcon Communications, speaking here at the 2009 NWT Aboriginal Business Conference in Yellowknife, said the company has helped innovate Internet and wireless technology in the NWT over the last 10 years. - NNSL file photo |
The Dene-owned company, which has been the federal government's community champion for its NWT Broadband Project since 2005, is investing nearly $15 million of Infrastructure Canada money with its partner, Northwestel Inc., to bring 4G wireless service to every community in the territory by the end of 2014.
The service was launched in Fort Simpson and Norman Wells before last Christmas, and has since been launched in Fort Resolution, Fort Providence, Fort McPherson, Tulita and Aklavik. The service, which allows residents to use the latest smartphones and tablets in those communities for the first time, will be rolled out in seven more communities before the end of the year, said Paul Flaherty, president and CEO of Northwestel.
"In the Northwest Territories, because of the Falcon partnership, the latest phones are going to work in every single community of the Northwest Territories by the time we're done," Flaherty recently told News/North.
While wireless upgrades are included in the company's $233-million modernization plan for all three territories, the external funding from Falcon will make the NWT "the most connected region" in the North, Flaherty said.
Darrell Beaulieu, president and CEO of Falcon Communications, said Falcon has been working with Infrastructure Canada to promote broadband in the NWT for more than 10 years.
With its previous vendor, SSI Micro, the company invested close to $50 million to help build Internet service infrastructure across the territory.
"We're a community champion but a business first," Beaulieu said, explaining why it is economically feasible for even the least populated communities of the NWT to have the latest broadband services.
"I think it's important because even though you have some small communities, when you look at the potential resource development that could happen in and around or near those communities, it would not only be the residents of those communities benefitting but industry and government will bring their communications capabilities with them.
"It will help stimulate economic development," he said.
While Falcon is providing the external funding for its vendor, Northwestel, to launch the latest technology in every NWT community, Northwestel will bear the operating cost in the future after its modernization plan is rolled out.
The plan will be reviewed at a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearing starting next month in Inuvik.
Beaulieu said the modernization plan is a positive step.
"Let's look at it this way. Would you support somebody upgrading your highway if it's really bad? If Northwestel is not modernizing equipment in Northwest Territories, who is going to do that?
"I think all our society as a whole should always have higher expectations, whether it's in telecommunications or transportation or towns and cities we live in," Beaulieu said.
