Nunavut broadband access limited by scarce satellite capacity, says NBDC

A lack of satellite capacity on the C-band will limit Nunavut’s ability to expand broadband Internet access in the territory, Oana Spinu, acting executive director of the Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation (NBDC), said in an interview. “There are several satellites that footprint the North and right now all the telecommunications services for the territory are using one of those satellites , and its pretty much at capacity,” Spinu, head of the NBDC, a non-profit organization that helps provide broadband access to Nunavut residents, told The Wire Report. But Telesat, an Ottawa company that operates satellites serving the North, says there is still capacity to go around. Telesat operates three satellites, the Anik F1R, Anik F2 and Anik F3, all three of which use a frequency called the C-band to deliver Canada’s North with fixed broadband service. The Anik F3 also supplies broadband capacity to providers in Ontario and Quebec, but not in the territories. Only one of the satellites, the Anik F2, serves Canada’s territories with direct-to-home satellite broadband on a frequency called the Ka band. The direct-to-home service—which is more expensive than the fixed service—is available through Northwestel. Barrett Xplore, a wireless and satellite Internet provider based in Woodstock, N.B., also offers satellite broadband in the territories, and announced earlier this year that it will expand its Ka band broadband service in 2011, offering Internet download speeds of up to 25 Mbps. John Maduri, CEO of Barrett, said the company has hundreds of direct-to-home customers in the territories and has the band capacity to expand. “In Nunavut, we would be delighted to take on more customers. We’ve got the capacity,” Maduri told The Wire Report. Spinu said Northwestel’s Ka band Internet service under the Netcaster brand is more difficult to install, with a satellite fixed at the home, and that high-use customers, such as mining camps, tend to subscribe. “We have quite a bit of capacity that is available that can provide the services that are required to the North into the Arctic,” Michele Beck, Telesat’s director of North American sales, said in an interview. “The capacity is there, it’s available to procure and anyone can step up.” But Jeff Philipp, president and chief technology officer of SSI Micro, said the C-band satellites do not provide enough redundancy—or backup measures—if anything should go wrong. “If F2 falls out of the sky, every community in northern Canada would go dark until a technician visits and points the dish at a different satellite,” Philipp said in an interview. “We would have to point at F3 and hope they have enough free capacity to take all of us onto it.” But Beck said there is enough C-band capacity on all three satellites if something were to go wrong with Anik F2. “The coverage is almost equivalent on the other satellites. We can switch the traffic over to any one of the satellites,” she said. “Amongst the three, any one of them can back each other up.” Both SSI Micro and Northwestel operate on the C-band, serving about 190 sites, or satellite dishes, which redistribute the fixed service in the North. Capacity on the C-band is used as a “telecommunications trunk” to deploy wireline and wireless services out of the North’s 190 sites. For $60 per month, customers in Nunavut can purchase a 384 Kbps fixed wireless Internet service from SSI Micro, operating on the C-band, under a high-speed Internet service called Qiniq, administered in conjunction with the NBDC. But for the same price, a Rogers Internet customer in Eastern Ontario can get an advertised download speed that is about 26 times faster, at 10Mbps. Even at $60 per month, the federal government subsidizes the Qiniq service. The subsidy is scheduled to end June 30, 2012, with no immediate plans to extend the funding, Philipp said. “Broadband Internet will be a marginal business case in remote and rural Canada forever,” he said. “In fact it will be a losing proposition forever.” If the federal subsidy ends, one of two things will happen: the price of the service will increase or the quality will decrease—neither of which is in his interest, particularly the second scenario, Philipp said. He added that he currently has secured enough C-band satellite capacity to grow his business case for residential Internet service into 2015, but satellite operators need to think longer-term. “There is a limit to how much capacity will be available over the next couple of years on those satellites,” Philipp said. “Currently, there is no strategy on how to put more capacity up there.” Philipp said the Galaxy 15 satellite, an errant satellite operated by American company Intelsat, is expected to test operators in the north and Telesat’s Anik satellites if it gets in the path of those satellites. On April 5, 2010, Intelsat lost control of the Galaxy 15. It has since veered off course and continues to broadcast a signal, which can interfere with the signals of other satellites. “It will potentially cross or fly by F3 in the Sept. 9 timeframe. Then it will move to possibly fly by F2 in the Oct. 20 or 21 timeframe,” Beck said. The satellite is expected to cause interference when it crosses the paths of the other satellites. But Beck said there is a good chance it could run out of battery power before it reaches Anik F3, failing to cause interference. Beck added that Telesat has taken precautions to mitigate potential interference from Galaxy 15. Telesat will adjust the sensitivities of its satellites’ transponders, increase the power on the satellites’ carriers (which link the satellites to the ground), and do some minor tweaking of hub antennas on the ground to offset as much interference as possible from Galaxy 15, she said. “We’re doing everything to ensure there is no degradation of service,” Beck said. Over the long-term, Beck said Telesat is exploring opportunities with the government and private sector to create more satellite capacity. The development and launch of a new satellite can cost anywhere from $200 million to $300 million, and the company needs to line up customers to make a return on investment over a satellite’s 15-year lifespan, she said. “We can increase the number of services and vastly improve communications to the North today,” Beck said. “All it takes is a champion to step up and offer those services and use the additional capacity that we have.” jmigneault@thewirereport.ca --- CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Barrett Xplore does not operate in the territories. Barrett operates in territories and hopes to expand its customers there.

Nunavut broadband access limited by scarce satellite capacity, says NBDC

News | August 26, 2010

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