As described in the four Tyendinaga videos, the community champions involved in Indigenous networking projects faced several challenges. Funding is difficult to secure – particularly on a stable enough basis to support sustainable community networks. Sometimes, communities lack the technical knowledge and skills required to operate these networks. Network maintenance can involve scaling towers and installing electrical equipment in harsh environments. Finally, operators sometimes face complaints from unsatisfied customers who are unaware of the difficulties in maintaining a community broadband system.
But with dedication and hard work, these challenges can be resolved. Communities can draw on many resources, such as this website for cable operators developed by KO-KNET. The ingenuity and dedication of local champions is driving innovation in this area. Self-taught technicians are proving that First Nations community networks can operate in a sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective manner.
For example, Wes Angees is the local technician in Slate Falls First Nation in northern Ontario. Wes keeps the local phones running, connects people to the Internet, and takes care of local networking. He works for the Band Council, which set up a local telephone and broadband system called Bamaji Telephone Services. Along with providing Wes with employment, the organization keeps revenues circulating inside the community. Read about Wes and his work with Bamaji Telephone Services.
Located a few hours from Sioux Lookout down an all-weather logging road, Slate Falls is a community of around 260 people located on the south shore of North Bamaji Lake. When the community formally incorporated in 1985, it lacked basic infrastructure, including hydro electricity and running water. Locals carried hand-held radios around town and out on the land, paging different channels to reach friends and family. Slate Falls remained a fly-in community until 2008, when it connected to Ontario’s all-weather road network.
Before Slate Falls established its own communication system in partnership with the Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network (NICSN), the community relied on a single pay phone installed in 1985. Until 2001, residents lined up for hours in the Band office lobby to use this phone. Demand for telephone services pushed the Band leadership and Windigo Tribal Council to develop their own solutions. By the late 1990s, the community began accessing Internet services through a system managed by KNET.
In 2001, KNET replaced this system with an experimental satellite network that interconnected several public buildings, including the Band Office, nursing station, school and Wahsa adult learning centre. By 2002, the community could access enough bandwidth to support video and voice applications. They began using the system to deliver health and education services, including the Keewaytinook Internet High School and Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telehealth.
Over time, this infrastructure also became a platform for videoconferencing and voice-over-IP telephone service. Through funding support from Industry Canada and other government agencies, by 2005 high-speed connectivity was available in the community. The community used this improved infrastructure to develop the IP-based Bamaji Telephone Services.
This network became the basis for the NICSN satellite cooperative, a not-for-profit partnership that connects more than 60 Aboriginal and remote communities across Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec. Today, many people continue to use this service. While it does not allow direct long distance calling, people can use calling cards, and calls to several communities are considered local. The service costs $60 per month for bundled phone and Internet, once users have paid start-up costs for equipment (around $500).
Slate Falls recently transitioned off the NICSN satellite infrastructure and joined the regional Northwest Ontario fibre optic network. During this transition, some residents expressed concerns that Bell Aliant (the private sector partner in this project) might undermine the Band-owned system by introducing competing services. Presented with the opportunity to transition from the Band-owned ISP to managed services purchased from Bell Aliant, the community decided to maintain the Bamaji system. Today, the Band network and Bamaji Telephone Services remain in operation. Read more about this transition. Below, watch a short video about the community network.
(video posted December 2012)