Broadband entrepreneur bridges the Arctic wilderness
Ottawa Business Journal - Ottawa,Ontario,Canada
"A few businesses had accounts from the south in Yellowknife. They were
racking up quite a few bills. The average person in an office here was
racking up ...
<http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/288829528613428.php>

[excerpt]


Broadband entrepreneur bridges the Arctic wilderness
By Julie Fortier, Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Mon, May 7, 2007 12:00 AM EST

Over a crackly telephone connection, it is clear that Cambridge Bay is a
world away from Ottawa.

"It's quite nice out there actually," says Darrell Ohokannoak, manager of
Polarnet, a community service provider of broadband Internet for the
Nanavut community and chairman of Nunavut Broadband Development Corp.
(NBDC) when asked about the weather. "It's only about - 14, I think. The
sun is out, but I think we're expecting a little bit of snow later on."

The hamlet of Cambridge Bay is located just north of the Arctic Circle on
the south coast of Victoria Island, and is the largest community in the
Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut with a population of around 1,350.

But it's not so different from Ottawa in terms of the population being
tech savvy. A life-long resident of Cambridge Bay, Mr. Ohokannoak has been
running Internet service in the region for about 10 years and started out
with dial-up.

"A few businesses had accounts from the south in Yellowknife. They were
racking up quite a few bills. The average person in an office here was
racking up $800 per month in Internet bills. With the wireless we have
now, it's about $60 per month," says Mr. Ohokannoak.

From Nunavut's biggest community, Iqaluit (population 7,500) to its
smallest, Grise Fiord (population 200), all the villages are connected.
With communities just outside of Ottawa still waiting for broadband, it
seems almost impossible that it is being offered to these tiny northern
hamlets, especially at such a reasonable price.

This feat was made possible with the tireless effort of Kanata resident
David Smith, president of NBDC.

With years of experience in the government procurement sector and raising
venture capital for start-ups, Mr. Smith's most recent achievement has
been planning, obtaining financing for and managing the implementation of
the Nunavut broadband network, Qiniq. Amazingly, this network provides
wireless broadband service to every home and building in Nunavut. Qiniq is
located in Yellowknife, managed centrally by SSI Micro, and its satellite
broadband is linked with the NBDC primary control centre in Ottawa.