September 14 , 2001

Kuujjuaq logs on the wireless way

A company partly owned by Iqaluit businessman Adamie Itorcheak connects Kuujuaq to the Web

JANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News

KUUJJUAQ — Workers at the Kativik Regional Government, the police station, the Makivik Corporation and the community’s municipal offices are now connected to the Internet, 24 hours a day.

No long-distance call is required before logging on and no wires are needed either, because a 4.5-metre-wide satellite dish perched on top of the KRG building provides a wireless connection to the Internet.

"We’re one of the first towns in North America that are wireless," said Gordon Cobain, the KRG’s administrative director.

There’s also a public computer in the KRG lobby set up to surf the Web easily and quickly.

By using radio waves instead of physical wires, Cobain’s portable laptop computer has an immediate connection to the Internet anywhere in Kuujjuaq — his office, his living room, even his vehicle.

"From the airport to the [Kuujjuaq] Forum, and everywhere in between, you can be instantly connected," Cobain said.

The system is relatively inexpensive to use, too. "For all those hooked up from July 15 to Aug. 15, the total of the data charge was $963," Cobain said.

The KRG wants to make this Internet service available gradually.

Cobain said increasing the system’s speed is the next step, from 1.5 megabits per second to 45 megabits per second.

A company called SSI Micro, located in Fort Providence, N.W.T., markets this wireless Internet technology.

In April 1999, SSI formed a joint venture with PolarNet, Nunanet and Sakku Arctic Technologies to market its telecommunications expertise.

One of this company’s shareholders is Adamee Itorcheak, an Iqaluit businessman who owns the city’s first private Internet service provider, Nunanet.

Itorcheak also has close ties to the Makivik Corporation as a member of First Air’s board.

The KRG’s goal is to put similar satellite dishes into every community in Nunavik.

Cobain said this form of satellite connection to the Internet would cost about $14,000 a month for all Nunavik communities.