Liberals invest $50M in Nunavut’s satellite internet

A multimillion-dollar federal investment in backbone internet infrastructure is expected to improve speeds in every one of Nunavut’s far flung communities, where residents currently weather sluggish connections for steep prices.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development allocated nearly $50 million to Northwestel Inc. as part of its $500-million program to build high-speed networks in rural and remote communities, Minister Navdeep Bains announced in Iqaluit Thursday.

Northwestel, the incumbent northern provider owned by BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada, will use the cash plus an additional $73 million of its own to build satellite earth stations in all 24 communities in the territory, which relies entirely on satellite connections to get its 36,000 residents online.

The biggest impact will be a massive capacity increase to speed of the backbone network, Northwestel’s chief operating officer Curtis Shaw said in an interview.

Limited satellite capacity can result in backlogs and delays as information is sent to the satellite, then to the south, back to the satellite and finally back to Nunavut.

The investment will provide 20 times more broadband capacity for institutions such as schools, governments and health care providers, he said.

For residential customers, it is expected to approximately triple their speeds from 5 Mbps to 15 Mbps, he said.

“It really starts bridging that digital divide and impacts health, education and small business,” Shaw said.

Northwestel’s backbone will rely on the Ka-band high-throughput satellite Telesat Canada plans to launch next year, Shaw said. It will be open access, he added, so any provider will have full access to the capacity.

The new technology allows for higher speeds than the current Telesat satellite that serves much of Nunavut, although it’s still a far cry from the ultra-fast 1 Gbps speeds increasingly available for big city residents.