The Arctic and Its Future
April 2009
Banner photo: © Tim Hibo/Getty Images
Bringing Connectivity to the Top of the World
Steven Kanayok and Christine Tootoo examine a geoscience applicationthat shows Nunavut in detail from satellite pictures, at the Qiniqnetwork launch in Rankin Inlet in May 2005
[P. Leaton]
It's been described as a small miracle. From the beginning, the provision of broadband Internet service to Nunavut's 29,000 residents, spread out over 25 communities and 2 million square kilometers of land, has been a test of persistence, endurance and devotion.
For people like Lorraine Thomas, it's been a life's passion and a personal mission for the last 15 years. When she first discovered the Internet in 1992, she immediately recognized the tremendous benefit the technology could bring to people living in the remote communities of Canada's eastern Arctic, which could only be accessed by plane or by boat.
Thomas had already spent her mid-20s in Rankin Inlet teaching television as a medium through which the Inuit could preserve their language and culture. "It was handing tools to people, letting them do what they're going to do, letting them do it the way they're going to do it, and they're going to take that technology and move it to another level that nobody's ever expected," she explains. "It's the same with broadband."
Today, Thomas works for the not-for-profit Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation (NBDC), with a team whose vision and resolve has made Nunavut broadband a reality.
In 2003, the federal government agreed to provide just under half of the required funds to build a satellite broadband network. "It's the hardest business case on the planet," says Jeff Philipp, president of SSI Micro, the company selected to build the network. "My original business case was not that we would make money on broadband Internet . . . I wanted the chance to build the network and to prove to people what could be done. I've lived my whole life in the North and I think this is a critical piece of infrastructure."
In an effort to keep the network growing and to keep the service affordable, SSI Micro poured millions of its own dollars into additional capacity to keep the network afloat. "One of our main obstacles is that the cost of satellite is hundreds of times more than what people in the south pay for their signal," explains Darrell Ohokannoak, NBDC chairman.
Another challenge was to educate users and the public about digital technology--to incorporate it into the local mind-set and Inuktitut language. "One issue is language and philosophies," explains Adamee Itorcheak, an NBDC board member, "coming up with new words in Inuktitut, and even just the thought process."
Social Connectivity
Since its creation, the Qiniq network has attracted over 4,500 users across the territory, expanding essential services in areas such as health and education, as well as facilitating an insurgence of international research in the Arctic that will help inform public policy for years to come.
But for many Nunavummiut, the Internet is first and foremost a powerful social and economic tool. In the community of Sanikiluaq, interest in the Internet was sparked with the creation of an online store through which to sell carvings made by local artists.
"There's hardly any tourists coming in, so it's easier to have it online," says Sarah Meeko, a Sanikiluaq resident.
The community has also embraced the Internet as a means of communicating with family and friends, within the territory and around the world.
Teenagers also use social networking sites and email to share traditional knowledge of Inuit culture and ways of living off the land, Meeko added. "They're taught traditional stuff, so when they learn, they're really excited and their friends get excited and then they share it with all Nunavut." She laughs when she describes the chaos that ensues whenever the service is temporarily down. "They call every 10 minutes, like 'What's wrong with the Internet?'"
SSI will be investing in significant infrastructure upgrades to the Qiniq network. With matching investment dollars from the Canadian government and additional investment in more satellite bandwidth, the future is bright.
Carolyn Sloan is a journalist, entrepreneur and artist living in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada's newest territory. Nunavut means "our land" in the Inuktitut language.
