Page 2: FTTH owned by the aboriginal people

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This network operator is owned by Bell Canada. However, the telecom and broadcasting group is in the process of selling Northwestel to a consortium of aboriginal peoples. This will make Northwestel the world's largest Indigenous-owned network operator. It remains to be seen whether the purchase price of one billion dollars will ever pay off in view of the small customer base. In any case, the greater reliability promised by the Canada North Fibre Loop is essential if Northwestel is to stand a chance against Starlink and other satellite services.

Parallel to the construction of the Dempster Fibre Line, fiber optic connections were laid in the Yukon settlements (except in the capital Whitehorse) with a subsidy of over 40 million dollars. As a result, there are now many Yukoners who have to drive hundreds of kilometers to the nearest supermarket, but enjoy FTTH (Fibre To The Woodhouse). Northwestel sold these local access networks two years ago to a consortium of 13 indigenous peoples of the Yukon and is leasing them back.

In the case of the Dempster Fibre Line, aboriginal governments insisted that the cables be laid underground rather than on poles, as is customary in North America. This was partly for visual reasons, but also because poles are difficult to see in the depths of winter and tend to get in the way of snowmobiles. In fact, the Dempster Fibre Line has been laid almost exclusively underground or in bodies of water. According to the Yukon government, new masts only had to be erected for just over one percent of the route.

Anyone interested in the telecom history of Canada's North may find the booklet "In Direct Touch with the Wide World, Telecommunications in the North 1865-1992" by Dianne Green informative. Northwestel published it in 1992 (ISBN-10: 096961280X).

German Remote Sensing Data Center

Since 2010, the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) has had a 13-meter satellite antenna in Inuvik, which is operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Since then, three more parabolic antennas of the same size have been built there: One belongs to the Canadian space agency, one to the French, and one is a collaboration between France and Sweden. Together they form the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF), which is managed by the Canadian Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. There is also a dish from the Norwegian company KSAT (Kongsberg Satellite Services).

In anticipation of the completion of the Canada North Fibre Loop, Canada's federal government announced the construction of a remote sensing station in Inuvik in June. In the same month, Eutelsat commissioned a large Oneweb ground station in Yellowknife.

The German antenna in Inuvik was built with funds from the Helmholtz Association to control the TanDEM-X satellite. This mission was used to create a ground profile of the Earth that is accurate to within one meter by 2016. DLR has already controlled other satellites with polar orbits via Inuvik. The location north of the Arctic Circle is particularly suitable for communication with such satellites. As a rule, these are scientific satellites with cameras or radar for earth observation. Their orbits converge above the poles.

The antennas in Inuvik can see from the North Pole to the equator and can establish contact with their satellites up to twelve times a day. This is considerably more than ground stations further south can offer. More frequent connections help to control the satellites at different times of the day. The longer connection time enables significantly more data to be downloaded from the satellite each day. Soon the data can also be reliably transferred.

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