Whitehorse Daily Star

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Martin Lehner

New link won’t improve Internet reliability: expert

“What a lot of people believe is that it will increase the reliability of their Internet.”

By Aimee O'Connor on November 20, 2015

“What a lot of people believe is that it will increase the reliability of their Internet.”

Martin Lehner, a co-owner of local technology solutions provider Orange Technology, has noticed some confusion around what the Yukon government’s Dempster Highway fibre optic link will provide to Yukoners.

Orange Technology has clients with Internet service that experience dysfunctions multiple times a day, for varying periods of time.

“The fibre optic line and building a northern route doesn’t really address that problem,” he said in an interview this week. “Their Internet will not become more stable or reliable because of that.

“What it’s really addressing is those major outages where everything is down because someone cut the line.”

When the project was announced at the end of October, a press release stated that by creating a fibre “loop” – connecting the Northwest Territories to Yukon – data will be able to flow in another direction in the event of damage to the fibre.

Essentially, the project is a back-up solution for telecommunication failures in the territory, one which will create “redundancy.”

The territory has been plagued by lengthy failures in services for years – often due to contractors in heavy equipment unwittingly slicing through the existing fibre optic cable south of the territory.

Another source of risk during the summer months is with forest fires, if the flames were to run over the cable and damage or break it.

Without another direction for data to travel in, the sliced line results in territory-wide Internet outages.

“Think of it as a racetrack,” said Andrew Anderson, Northwestel Inc.’s director of communications.

“If there’s a break in the track, you will have the opportunity to turn around.”

These “loops” are the best method of providing redundancy and protection, Anderson said.

“What many people don’t know is that there’s already a Northwestel fibre loop in the southern part of our network,” he said.

Several years ago, the company built a connector from Fort Nelson, B.C., up to the Northwest Territories.

Now, when breaks occur in the cable, nobody notices disruptions in service.

Aside from protecting Internet service, the fibre loop maintains other services, including phones, cellular devices and government services such as emergency 911.

But protection of these things does not directly translate to faster service or larger data caps.

In Lehner’s eyes, having Internet services that are reliable, fast and effective are all important.

Redundancy is important, he said, but the “last mile” problems such as day-to-day connectivity issues, slow speeds and limited data caps are a bigger problem in the North.

There are several Orange Technology clients experiencing that frustration, he said.

“We pay considerably more for Internet usage and we don’t get as much usage as what’s considered the standard in the rest of the world,” he said.

“Certainly, we’d like to see rates come down and usage allowances go up.”

Good news, to some, may lie in the fact that Northwestel does not expect prices to go up once the new fibre line is built.

Anderson noted that the company continually strives to bring higher speeds and data caps to the North – but the priority now seems to be having the comfort of knowing one’s Internet won’t be affected when and if the cable ever gets damaged.

The fibre optic link was a topic of discussion in the legislature this week.

Yukon Liberal Leader Sandy Silver raised two main points of contention with the project – the lack of public tender, and the “in-the-neighbourhood of $32 million” price tag.

“Can the minister explain to Yukoners what led to the decision to sole-source such a large and important contract?” Silver asked.

Because Economic Development Minister Stacey Hassard had been out of town this week, Community Services Minister Currie Dixon fielded Silver’s questions.

“As soon as any relevant data or any relevant study is available, we’ll make it public and available to members of the legislature,” Dixon said.

Earlier this week, Silver inquired about the financial plan for the project.

Northwestel confirmed that the company will put forward $10 million of the $32-million total to build the Dempster Highway fibre line.

An additional $5 million will be put toward extending the existing fibre infrastructure from Stewart Crossing to Dawson City.

The company will also assume all ongoing operations and maintenance over the lifetime of the fibre, a spokesperson told the Star this week.

It’s unclear whether the line will be solely owned by Northwestel, or will involve another entity.

In the same breath, the government has not committed to a total dollar amount yet – Dixon indicated that there have been discussions of potential funding partnerships between the federal and Northwest Territories governments.

Asked whether the Yukon government has provided funding to the N.W.T.’s Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line, cabinet spokesperson Dan Macdonald confirmed that the Yukon government did not contribute anything to that project.

Lehner suggests that the N.W.T. may be driven to help finance the Yukon link because of a satellite station in Inuvik.

Last April, the federal government put out a call for bids on $17-million worth of work related to the Inuvik station.

“It’s an economic driver for the N.W.T.,” he said.

It would be advantageous for the territory to have redundancy via the Yukon fibre route for the purpose of expanding that satellite station, he added.

Comments (6)

Up 5 Down 3

Billybob on Nov 21, 2015 at 8:36 pm

It sounds to me like the last mile and the middle mile are both problematic areas. This is an and situation not an or case. Fix it.

Up 10 Down 4

Martin on Nov 21, 2015 at 8:30 pm

@J: Who would constitute 'someone more qualified' ? Just curious.

Up 10 Down 6

Liberals get it together on Nov 21, 2015 at 12:34 pm

Calling down government and Northwestel employees.
Good move if you want to win the next election.
As a person who has worked on these projects, give the staff time to do their job well.
The liberal leader has no experience in managing anything like the NDP.
So they continue to criticizes everyone but add no value.
Time for a new leader for the liberals like Rod.

Up 11 Down 6

Yukoner on Nov 20, 2015 at 10:20 pm

Sorry was this supposed to be a PR piece... like this is not news article.

Up 13 Down 7

J on Nov 20, 2015 at 6:57 pm

I would rather hear this topic from someone more qualified and can provide more constructive perspective to the matter. Not just another person who feels the same as everyone else....

Up 18 Down 11

Thomas Brewer on Nov 20, 2015 at 3:34 pm

This should be a letter to the editor, not a major (for the Star) article...

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