High costs and scarce bandwidth stifling users and creators of new media, Nunavut group tells CRTC

Network throttling in Nunavut is part of daily life and will only get worse unless the government takes action to replace expensive satellite links with fibre as the main method for moving data into and out of remote communities, a Nunavut group tells the CRTC. The situation, it warns, is even more critical as Nunavut arguably has more people involved in the production of media content per capita than any other jurisdiction in Canada.Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. (NBDC) is among 152 groups that filed comments with the CRTC this month as part of its upcoming hearing on whether Canadian broadcasting content on the Internet should be regulated (Notice of Public Hearing 2008-11). But unlike most other interveners, it does not wade into the thorny issues of ISP taxes or content contributions.Rather, the not-for-profit group warns that bandwidth constraints, combined with high satellite transmission costs, are putting the cost of receiving or distributing new media beyond the pocketbooks of most residents. All communications into Nunavut, including voice, are transmitted via satellite."With the current rate of growth of traffic density it is difficult to imagine that people in satellite served communities will be able to afford to distribute or access new media without additional new investment and additional innovation in distribution broadband materials," writes Lorraine Thomas, secretary-treasurer of NBDC.The solution, she says, is to develop a strategy that will see terrestrial fibre eventually replace satellite. While NBDC acknowledges this will be "extremely expensive", it insists it's only a matter of time before it eventually happens.NBDC also calls on the government to replace the National Satellite Initiative (NSI), a federal program that helps offset 50% of bandwidth fees paid by northern ISP SSI Micro Ltd., which purchases satellite time from Telesat, the only satellite vendor whose signal footprints covers all Nunavut communities. The NSI program is set to expire in 2012.While the subsidy has helped create the network, NBDC says it does not address problems facing the distribution and accessibility of new media."And as routine web-based services become more ‘media' intensive, even the home page of a southern bank or a southern retail store may be too expensive for a Nunavut resident to access over satellite," NBDC writes.People in Nunavut pay far more and for far less than southern Canadians. Telesat charges SSI Micro at least 100 times more than carriers in the south for the same amount bandwidth. SSI, in turn, provides Internet access service to QINIQ which serves homes and businesses in the territory.Each basic customer pays $60/month for a maximum inbound transfer speed of 256 kb/s, and maximum outbound speed of 96 kb/s. Customers are also capped per month at 2 gigabits. If they don't purchase additional capacity at $30/GB, they are automatically downgraded to dial-up speeds. In comparison, southern ISP offer inbound speeds of 1500 kb/s, with a 100 to 150 gigabit cap per month, and often costing less."Consumers interested in accessing new media have to make difficult choices daily - do they do their online banking, book plane tickets, check email, and upgrade their Facebook page, or do they watch 1 or 2 short videos a month produced by an Aboriginal broadcaster in Nunavut?"The QINIQ is also operating at capacity and bandwidth management - or throttling - is a routine practice. Without it, warns NBDC, "the QINIQ Network would stop operating within hours"."ISPS will be (and in the Nunavut'scase, are already) inadvertently put into the position of ‘gatekeeper' - restricting access to new media because of the extreme cost of satellite bandwidth," states NBDC.And Nunavut residents are using increasingly more bandwidth. In 2006, QINIQ's first full year of operation, the average user transferred .814 GB/month. That increased to 1.66 GB/month in 2007, and this year to 1.465 GB/month, which is nearly three-quarters of QINIQ's total satellite allotment. Distribution a problem for local artistsThe bandwidth bottleneck is also causing grief for Nunavut's artistic community, an increasing number of whom are migrating their works to online formats. NBDC notes that nearly a quarter of adults in the territory work in producing art, with many working in video production. But NBDC says producers are unable to stream this local content to Nunavut residents since their files are often larger than their entirely monthly Internet allotment."Producers must still rely on shipping ‘hard copies' of their products via airlines, which is costly in financial terms and also can result in lengthy delays," it notes.With partial funding from NSI, NBDC is working with vendors serving Nunavut to come up with ways to stretch available bandwidth further, such as moving data in off hours and using more local data storage and local networking.

High costs and scarce bandwidth stifling users and creators of new media, Nunavut group tells CRTC

News | 12/18/2008 6:27 pm EST

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