FOR A TRUE FIX TO THE northern broadband problem to come to fruition and be feasible, there are a few key requirements.
According to Ssi Micro’s Jeff Philipp, whose company provides broadband in the Far North, they all fall under one key overriding principle: Network sharing with open access at affordable rates.
Speaking specifically about his Nunavut broadband project we outlined in an earlier segment of this series, he explained that a project of this magnitude needs to be looked at in a holistic manner: Not just what the service provider needs but what Nunavut needs.
First and foremost, if the intention is to ensure there is sustainable competition, it’s unrealistic to expect each competitor to build their own buildings, erect their own towers, deploy backbone, set up backup power generators and train local staff. That’s very difficult to make work even where populations are much denser.
“It makes no sense,” he argued. “What you can do though is you could build a shared infrastructure if it’s designed properly and that’s what Qimirluk is about. Qimirluk is about investing once in all of these remote communities with a design that we’ve been building.”
The problem with the government approach to funding broadband in these remote communities is it doesn’t consider some basic elements such as how many towers does it take to cover a town of 800 people? The answer is one, said Philipp.
“But this is not even considered in our funding or in our review or in our application guidelines. It’s just who’s got the cheapest price to deliver,” he added.
The primary objective of this type of government funding should be to build the right infrastructure for the North whether it’s one backbone or multiple backbones with a combination of Ka-band, C-band or fibre.
“It comes into one colocation facility because you know what everybody that wants to compete needs those backbones,” said Philipp. “Regulate the backbone. Regulate the wholesale pricing. Design it so that it’s one colocation facility, one tower, one set of shared backbones and share the cost of those backbones where the building, the operating costs and training are included.”
Ed note: This is the final installment of our series on connecting the North. If you’d like to comment on this, confidentially, you can email us at editorial@cartt.ca. The prior installments can be found below.
Connecting the North Part II: What’s available up there? (updated)
Connecting the North Part III: Backbone, redundancy and transport south
Connecting the North: Connect to Innovate is just a "drop in the bucket" as a broadband solution
Connecting the North Part IV: Satellite capacity still a broadband barrier
