807 broadband project set to go.

Development of northwest high-speed network underway

A state-of-the-art, high-speed broadband network spanning northwestern Ontario is one step closer to becoming a reality.

Construction on 807 Northwest Network, the initiative that will link communities across northwestern Ontario with high-speed communications infrastructure, has begun.

Partners in the project, including Thunder Bay Telephone, Kenora Municipal Telephone System, Dryden Municipal Telephone System, FedNor and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp., have inked an agreement to install a complete broadband infrastructure throughout the 807 area code region over the next three years. The project is valued at $25 million dollars and is expected to create an abundance of job opportunities while making the area more accessible for health and business opportunities.

807 Northwest Network is a not-for-profit organization of public- and private-sector partners whose main objective is to ensure there is a world-class broadband telecommunication infrastructure in northwestern Ontario.

Dubbed Norwest ConX (the partnership formed between Thunder Bay Telephone, Kenora Municipal Telephone System, and Dryden Municipal Telephone System), the project will allow for increased accessibility to distance education and health care and provide affordable, state-of-the-art technology that can be applied to the specific needs of each community involved, says Jim Green, the project manager for 807 Northwest Network.

"The broadband is more than just the Internet," Green says. "It's video conferencing, telehealth, telemedicine, distance education, and video and text data transfer. There's a chance that some groups might use IP telephony, but we're not looking at creating a telephone service, only data transport."

Thunder Bay Telephone, the lead partner in Norwest ConX, will provide the operational resources to put the system in place. Construction has already begun in the west, where the company is expanding cellular service to connect Fort Frances, Kenora and Dryden.

Construction will then proceed to Red Lake and Sioux Lookout before the loop returns back to Thunder Bay and on to eastern communities along Highway 11 to Longlac and Highway 17 to Manitouwadge.

To each of the communities that will be a part of the loop, the project means accessibility to services and information "that is taken for granted by most people in the rest of Ontario," Thunder Bay Telephone general manager Sharon Hacio says.

"It means an opportunity to apply this information through distance education and telemedicine," Hacio says. "This opportunity will bring unprecedented economic opportunities to each community. Our. geographic isolation and sparse population density no longer need to be a barrier to economic diversification."

Vic Prokopchuk, who sits on the board of the economic development office for Atikokan and is a member of the local chamber of commerce says the new infrastructure will benefit individuals and businesses alike in Atikokan.

"The link will mean that we'll have alternate service to Bell Canada," Prokopchuk says. "In certain cases, there is no high-speed service from Bell, and the 807 Network (will change that) by making available to the local ISP (Internet service provider) wireless service."

Prokopchuk says high-speed Internet access may lead to new opportunities for existing businesses in the town and will allow the local hospital to link with the larger health-care facilities for diagnostic procedures.

Green predicts new information technology jobs will spring up across northwestern Ontario once the network is in place.

"Because each of these communities is going to have access to the services, someone is going to have to be in each town to do a lot of the set up," Green says. "There's a good chance that many small IT businesses can spring up across the region."

New uses for the technology are being introduced faster than the technology is being made, Green adds, and that leaves plenty of room for new business opportunities down the road.

The 807 Northwest project, which has been ongoing for the past year, is expected to be completed within the next three years.