Northern connectivity

This report proposes recommended goals and standards for broadband connectivity in the Territories, provides an analysis of the social and economic benefits of improving broadband connectivity and the consequences of inaction, and offers a comprehensive implementation and engagement plan. [...] This report, while principally the work of the Consultant team of Nordicity and Centre for the North, would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people and organizations: CRTC; Frank Gabriel and the TeleGreenland Team; Lorraine Thomas and the Imaituk Team; Doug Cunningham, Mike Cunningham, Geoff Batstone and the Arctic Fibre Team; Jean Colas and Sabina Posadziejewski o [...] The key challenge is the North’s insufficient communications ‘backbone’ – the infrastructure that connects northern communities to each other and the rest of the world. [...] Option 1: Base Network Upgrade (no new redundancy): $622,680,000 To upgrade the existing backbone (referred to as the base network in the report) to meet the target bandwidth requirements, the engineering team estimates the cost will be approximately $622,680,00 combining all three Territories. [...] The cost estimate of $765,001,000 includes the upgrade of the primary network as described in Option 1, plus the cost for ensuring the existence of a secondary redundant network that can support critical applications as needed.