Web pipeline plan may stall in Arctic
Private firm linking Japan, U.K. seeks federal cash for fibre-op in North
The head of a company trying to lay a broadband fibre optic cable along the Northwest Passage — a project that would connect Tokyo to London — says it may not go ahead unless the Canadian government becomes a major customer.
After three years of lobbying — and an appeal directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper — the federal government doesn’t appear ready to do what Arctic Fibre is asking it to: Switch over threequarters of its Internet services in the North to broadband cable from satellite services.
“To date we’ve been unable to secure orders from the federal government,” said Arctic Fibre CEO Doug Cunningham. “There has to be some sort of government support to make it economically viable.”
The project calls for a 15,000-ki- lometre undersea cable running from Japan to the coast of Alaska, then under the sea ice across Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and northern Quebec, before heading across the Atlantic Ocean to the U.K.
The main cable — the backbone of the network — would have landing spots at seven northern communities, including Cambridge Bay, Iqaluit and Cape Dorset and reach about half the population in Nunavut. Once the cable is in place — scheduled for summer 2015 — it wouldn’t be disturbed for 20 years, according to the plan.
The total cost is estimated to be at least $600 million. Installing extra branches on the backbone to connect more northern communities, possibly as much as 98 per cent of the population in Nunavut and Nunavik in Quebec, cost add $300 million, Cunningham said.
Internal government documents suggest the project’s proponents
There has to be some sort of government support to make it economically viable.
have been rebuffed in attempts to gain government backing.
The government does not want to appear as if it’s playing favourites, according to Cunningham, and is reluctant to back one private player, not others.
A spokesman for the prime minister said politicians won’t make decisions about what Internet services the government uses in the North.
“The government of Canada procures telecommunications services through competitive processes, run by public servants. These processes result in the most suitable service being procured for the lowest price, without the need for political intervention,” said spokesman Carl Vallée.
Arctic Fibre first approached the government in 2011 about financial backing. Cunningham’s group was looking for government support for a project that, if completed, would provide broadband Internet to about half the population in Nunavut.
A January briefing note to the president of Shared Services Canada noted that “all network connectivity in northern Canada is provided through satellite services,” which can be 10 times the cost of cable Internet “and is limited in capacity.” At the time, Cunningham wanted “a firm, formal commitment, in order to guarantee future business.”
The department wasn’t ready to provide that commitment.
“SSC’s position with respect to Arctic Fibre has been that it would contract for network services to northern locations through a service provider,” reads the note, released to The Citizen under the access-to-information law. “SSC would not lease dark fibre directly through Arctic Fibre and assume the responsibility of providing network services at these northern locations.”
The government projects its bandwidth needs in the North will increase by 10- and 12-fold in some cases over the next decade.