Communications
Innovative applications of communications technologies is vital here in Nunavut, where there are no roads connecting our widely dispersed communities.
As a result, Nunavut has become a leader in wireless communications technology. All 25 Nunavut communities have high-speed Internet service, delivered via satellite and distributed within communities using NextNet Wireless Inc.’s state of the art wireless system on a dedicated 2.5 Ghz frequency. One in three households and virtually all businesses in Nunavut are connected to the Internet – an astonishing penetration rate that continues to grow.
Nunavut’s leadership in communications has its origins in the successful video trials conducted in 1979 that linked hunters and elders between communities, and led to the establishment of the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation in 1981. IBC has long been a model for other Aboriginal groups worldwide.
In 1994 the “Connecting the North Symposium” created great popular excitement about the potential of new communications technologies for promoting the Inuit language and culture, for business, training, and health services. And today information technology makes possible Nunavut’s unique decentralized government structure.
