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Residents of Dettah, N.W.T, will soon have access to full-fibre high speed internet.
Northwestel is building a fibre optic cable connecting Dettah to the fibre line in Yellowknife. The new line will run along the Dettah all-season road on telephone polls. According to the company, the fibre connection will allow residents to access internet as fast as 500 megabytes per second.
Northwestel says Dettah will be the 14th community in Northwest Territories to be connected to fibre-optic internet. It’s expected to happen sometime next fall.
Kieron Testart is the manager of economic development for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. He said that better internet will make it easier for him and other employees at the First Nation to do their jobs.
“Even for us out working in Dettah, it’s easier to jump on a conference link and a Zoom call than driving to Yellowknife. So having calls that aren’t going to get dropped… that’s going to be great,” he said.
He also said that faster internet will be an important step in growing Dettah’s digital economy and bringing more tourism into the community.
Bobby Drygeese runs B.Dene Adventures Inc., an on-the land tourism business based at a camp just outside of Dettah. The business has a website where people can look up their services and book tours. Drygeese also arranges business by email.
Drygeese says that he can access the internet at his camp in Dettah, but it can be slow and cuts out at times.
“If we could use the internet anywhere that would be really great…we would respond faster to clients and make sure that everything is taken care of,” he said.
But Testart says that there is more work to be done to improve service in other communities as well. Yellowknives Dene First Nation would like to see infrastructure upgraded in Ndilǫ, where residents have access to high-speed internet, but very poor cell service.
“We’ll be chatting, colleagues just across the bay, and there will be everything from dropped calls to lag on video calls and things like that,” he said.
“It’s fairly unacceptable that a community right next to Yellowknife which has reliable service is suffering from those technical issues… We’re hopeful that Ndilǫ will get some attention on this.”
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