Canada invests over $151 million to build fibre optic cable between Iqaluit and Greenland

Rural Economic Development Minister Bernadette Hashemite kingdom of jordan has announced new investments of over $151 one thousand thousand CAD to build a submarine fibre optic cable from Iqaluit to Greenland to boost broadband services in northern Canada.

At a printing conference, Jordan said the cable is ready to exist 1,700 kilometres and volition run from Nuuk, Greenland to Iqaluit through the Davies Straight. A press release added that the cablevision in Iqaluit volition take a branch, or a split, to Kimmirut (a community in Nunavut).

Access to a fibre optic network will "reduce both communities' dependence on satellite communications for internet," the release said, calculation that information technology will connect up to iii,215 households in Nunavut to high-speed internet services. The Regime of Nunavut has committed to $30 million towards the project.

The investment for the project comes from the Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure Stream of the government'due south infrastructure programme.

Dean Wells, the primary data officer for the Nunavut Government, said in an interview with MobileSyrup that the relationship with Greenland was established in 2007 and a similar line was placed between Milton, Newfoundland and Labrador and the state. The rollout and full functionality of the line did non begin until 2009, he noted.

Wells too explained that at the time the two countries established a relationship and set rates betwixt carriers similar Bell and Eastlink to scroll out broadband services.

"The other contract was with Newfoundland, and this will be a new split up one with Nunavut," he said and added that "there are a lot of lessons learned already."

He also said that because the Nunavut projection is in its infancy, a lot of tests still demand to take place to ensure proper placement of the cable.

"Nosotros volition consummate an undersea survey that volition send ships out and plot out the seabed and find the correct path," he explained, noting that the project probably won't be fully functional until 2023.

The announcement is in line with Jordan's Connectivity Strategy, which seeks to connect 100 percent of Canadians to loftier-speed broadband services past 2030.