The high cost of telecommunications and high-speed Internet access is limiting the ability of northern economies to diversify, the Conference Board of Canada notes in a report released today.

The report is called Mapping the Long-term Options for Canada's North: Telecommunications and Broadband Connectivity. It examines a path forward for improving northern connectivity, as its title indicates.

"In 2013, the immediate concern for northern stakeholders – both aboriginal and non-aboriginal – is to develop critical connectivity infrastructure that is reliable, scalable, and supportive of locally affordable services,” the report says.

"The most modern standard of service continues to elude most northern communities.

"This limits the ability of regional economies to diversify through investments in sectors such as knowledge-based services and new media production.”

The report concludes with seven recommendations for improving northern connectivity.

The first recommendation calls for more capital investment, a well-understood need in the North.

"Governments need to lead by example, as northern populations and economic activity are small, remote and dispersed through large geographic expanse,” the report notes.

It warns that continued government support may also be necessary beyond initial investments.

"There are too often only one-time government financial commitments available that cannot keep pace with the evolution of community needs and broadband ICTs (information communication technologies),” it says.

The second recommendation calls for efforts to attract and retain information technology (IT) professionals to Canada's North.

Attracting these professionals can be an ongoing challenge, making solutions like local training and remote service delivery essential.

Northerners also need access to functioning devices that can make use of next-generation connectivity infrastructure, the report argues.

The fourth recommendation calls for diversification and redundancy of northern networks.

"The design of northern network backbones can have a negative impact on service reliability. Single points of failure along a backbone, coupled with non-redundant links between communities, can bring down an entire region's communications infrastructure,” the report notes.

It highlights the September 2012 communication outage across the Yukon and other areas in the North which stemmed from a power outage at Northwestel Inc.'s central office in Whitehorse.

The fifth recommendation is to improve affordability of telecommunications in the North.

"Most northern families have earnings below the national average while the cost of living is much higher in the North than in the South,” the report says.

"If Canadian social policy is serious about developing a northern knowledge-based economy, it should investigate the relevance of a northern subsidy for residential broadband services – including personal telecommunications and high-speed Internet access.”

According to the report, the pan-territorial average price for lowest-cost residential high-speed Internet services is $68 a month, for a data transfer rate of 2,500 Kbps download, and 384 Kbps upload.

The average pan-provincial is $55 for 2,800 Kbps download, 590 Kbps upload. The average in the Yukon is $65 a month for 2,800/384 Kbps.

The pan-territorial average for combined costs for personal cellular and high-speed Internet service is $155 a month for basic cell service, or $188 for cellular voice service and 1 GB of data.

The pan-provincial average for personal cellular and high-speed Internet service is $137 a month for basic cell service, or $170 for cellular voice service and 1 GB of data.

The Yukon average for basic cell and high-speed Internet is $150 a month, and $185 a month for cell with data and Internet.

The sixth recommendation urges "careful regulation of investment decisions, service plans, and subsidy request of northern service providers to ensure their northern customers receive adequate service.”

In conclusion, the report calls for "increased northern and aboriginal content development relevant delivery channels, and appropriate support for digital literacy.”

The report argues that access to only southern content won't benefit northerners in the same way information that reflects "their unique realities and needs” will.

In addition, digital literacy is increasingly important.

"Just as the Internet and social media provide endless creative possibilities and real economic potential, they introduce new concerns about social identity, privacy, and security,” the report says.