PHOTO BY DWANE WILKIN
September 3, 1998
Polar Net building the Internet in Kitikmeot
Thanks to Polar Net all of the Kitikmeot's five communities will soon gain access to the Internet.
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DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
CAMBRIDGE BAY - Darrel Ohokannoak was just getting familiar with his own Internet account two years ago when he suddenly found himself in the driver's seat of a communications revolution in the Kitikmeot region.
Until 1996, anyone living in the region who wanted to send email or surf the World Wide Web could do so only by dialing long-distance to Yellowknife. That's where the nearest Internet service providers were located.
So when Kitikmeot Corp., the birthright development corporation of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, launched its own Internet service in Cambridge Bay, Darrel jumped at the chance to put his management studies training to work.
"When I started, I had a desk and a chair, and that's it," Ohokannoak, 28, remembers.
Polar Net turned to the expertise of Yellowknife Internet service provider SSI Micro for help getting the Cambridge Bay service off the ground.
Ohokannoak spent several weeks working with SSI Micro in Yellowknife and Fort Providence learning to run an Internet service business. Then it was back to Cambridge Bay to install the equipment and sign up clients.
That partnership with SSI Micro continues.
Today, Polar Net manages nearly 250 Internet accounts, and is about to add many more, thanks to an expansion that will bring local Internet service to Gjoa Haven, Pelly Bay, Taloyoak and Kuglugtuk.
Access to local Internet service in these smaller communites is being made possible this summer by the installation of four satellite dishes and high-speed modems, which will relay communication signals to and from Yelllowknife without having to go through NorthwesTel.
Ohokannoak said Polar Net intend to have trained representatives in place in each community later this fall.
The expansion is being financed partly by a grant from the federal CANARIE funding program.