Updates on our satellite network transition

Internet traffic in Paulatuk and Gamètì, NWT and Old Crow, Yukon now flows over OneWeb low Earth orbit (LEO) technology. Soon, the seven other satellite communities impacted by a Telesat end-of-life geostationary satellite will connect the same way.

The work to bring new LEO satellite technology to these communities was completed within just five months of the announcement of the existing satellite’s imminent end-of-life date. Northwestel partnered with communications-from-space leader OneWeb to deploy carrier-grade low Earth orbit technology. In these communities, four OneWeb antennas are secured on large, raised, steel platforms. The dishes track a constellation of small washing-machine sized satellites that orbit the earth 35x closer than a typical geostationary satellite. Northwestel’s existing in-community network then carries broadband from the central hub right to homes and businesses.

“From the start, our focus has been to keep these communities connected despite the challenging circumstances. I’m proud of our northern team and our technology partners for deploying this new technology so quickly. We couldn’t have done it without the support and collaboration of our local communities,” – Paul Gillard, VP of Business Markets

Northwestel plans to upgrade the remaining communities in January 2023. The transition will take place in the early hours of the morning and should not exceed a 30-minute disruption to services. Once the cut-over is complete, services for residents and businesses should continue as expected.

Communities receiving new low Earth orbit technology:

Communities

Sachs Harbour, NWT
Ulukhaktok, NWT
Paulatuk, NWT
Colville Lake, NWT
Gamètì, NWT
Wekweètì, NWT
Łutselk'e, NWT
Sambaa K'e, NWT
Old Crow, YT
Fort Ware, BC

We have 2 solutions that we’re bringing to the 10 communities in Yukon, BC and the Northwest Territories served by the Anik F2 satellite. We’re confident that between these two solutions we can keep your community connected and services working.

We are bringing new low earth orbit (LEO) technology to your community by early 2023. We also expect a new satellite to be available in 2023. When it’s ready, we will re-configure the current Northwestel dish in your community to connect to it. Combining these two solutions will keep you connected in the short term and provide redundancy in the long term.

Our Northwestel team came to these communities to consult with leaders on land use and in-community services. We’re grateful for the warm welcome and the collaboration to start getting these solutions built. We’re starting the physical work soon. You will see more Northwestel employees and some of our contractors in your community over the coming months to set up the new LEO ground stations.

Once we have exact timing of when we will cut over services to the new technology, we will let impacted customers know. There will be a brief outage when we do this work to keep your community connected.

Thank you for your continued support as we complete this important work.

On August 5th, Telesat publicly disclosed that its Anik F2 satellite will begin experiencing service degradation in northern communities beginning February 2023.   Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite currently carries broadband, wireless mobility and long-distance phone service to 11 remote Northwestel-served communities in Yukon, NWT, and northern BC.  Telesat’s Anik F2 is also used to carry some limited Northwestel services to other areas.

Northwestel remains fully committed to each of our Northern communities.  We are working closely with Telesat on alternate arrangements, and we are pursuing multiple avenues to keep customers in satellite-served communities connected.  We are working very closely with each community as work progresses.

As we move forward, we will keep government partners, stakeholders and impacted customers and communities informed and will post any updates here, at nwtel.ca/satellite.

Impacted communities in Northwest Territories, Yukon and BC: