Community networking projects like Bamaji Telephone Service also rely on partnerships, typically between local communities, network operators, and funders from government, private sector, or civil society organizations. For Indigenous groups located in expensive or challenging to service regions, these partnerships are necessary to provide services in regions that otherwise lack a business case. Put differently, Indigenous networking initiatives often emerge in areas of market failure. In such cases, it is local champions who step forward to address the digital divides their communities face.
One example of such a partnership is the community networking project undertaken by K’atl’odeeche First Nation (KFN) in the Northwest Territories. In the video below, Henry Tambour gives us a tour of the planned network and talks about the project.
(uploaded May 23, 2012)
The KFN community networking project, which began in 2011, has faced a number of challenges. In the first phase of the project, the community could access a local fibre optic network that interconnects community services that replaced aging infrastructure and generated savings for the Band Council through more efficient communications links. However, a bottleneck at the interconnection point between the community network and the rest of the world meant that once data traffic leaves KFN, it slowed down. The construction project to connect the local network to that interconnection point has faced several barriers to its completion.
Lyle Fabian, the IT Manager in charge of this project, produced the two videos below. They use photos and text to tell the story of how KFN solved that challenge by linking their Community Network to the rest of the world.
(uploaded Nov. 8, 2013)
K’atl’odeeche First Nation Fibre Optic Construction – Part 2
(uploaded Nov. 5, 2013)
On October 11, 2012, Lyle gave a presentation at the Pathways to Prosperity Conference in Yellowknife. The conference focused on issues of northern governance and economic development in the Northwest Territories. In the video below, Lyle discusses some of the benefits of the community network — once the construction work has been completed.
(uploaded Oct. 22, 2012)
Lyle has also been involved in many presentations to government and the CRTC to argue for more support for community networks like the one established in KFN. He and others have stressed the importance of ongoing operational support, as well as funding for initial capital builds. As noted in this news article from December 2020, Lyle’s Yellowknife-based company continues working to build internet networks in more Indigenous communities and help open up the North to more internet service providers (ISPs).
“We want to help enhance competitiveness and bring our services to the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link (MVFL),” Fabian said. “Our work will help Indigenous communities own their own networks. We lease infrastructure to ISPs at a fraction of the costs.”
After several years of operation, KFN ended up selling their local fibre optic infrastructure to the incumbent telecommunications provider Northwestel (a Bell Canada subsidiary), due to limited local capacity to manage it themselves. However, Lyle has continued his work connecting Indigenous communities in the NWT. His company, KatloTech, has worked on a number of projects, including deploying broadband networks for Ndilo, Dettah, and Jean Marie River, among other projects. Lyle also remains a passionate advocate for Indigenous community networks, as seen in the video below.
Lyle Fabian’s interview for DigitalNWT‘s Digital Innovators series (uploaded Sep 21, 2020)