“BCN will be the first 5G wireless First Nation company in Canada, and it’s in Manitoba.”
FOR years, northern communities have struggled with limited internet access, isolating residents from critical services. However, change is on the horizon, promising to elevate these communities and help unlock their economic potential.
Broadband Communications North (BCN), Manitoba’s largest Indigenous network, in collaboration with broadband service provider, ROCK/PomeGran Inc., recently secured $7.5 million in federal funding to enhance internet infrastructure in some of the province’s most remote Indigenous communities. This funding aims to deliver improved services to eight First Nations in Manitoba.
In about a year, residents of Barren Lands, Northlands Denesuline, Poplar River, Mathias Colomb Cree, Shamattawa, Sayisi Dene Denesuline, Mosakahiken Cree and Bloodvein First Nations can look forward to accessing reliable high-speed internet service in about twelve months.
The funding, from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), along with additional funding from other sources, allows PomeGran and BCN to begin the next phase in a project that will eventually bring improved connectivity to a total 18 Indigenous communities across northern Manitoba.
“[This funding announcement] will allow Broadband Communications North to continue building capacity in our communities, increasing their communication capabilities and, ultimately, making life better for them,” said Jason Neepin, executive director of BCN, in a press release.
For Neepin, who’s from Fox Lake Cree Nation, this isn’t only business — it’s personal.
“I know what it’s like to have terrible connectivity. I feel the pain because I’ve lived it. But I believe in our mission,” he says. “We want to bring city internet to the North, to each and every community.”
Based in Winnipeg, BCN began as a grassroots Indigenous organization and has evolved into a leading internet service provider (ISP) that delivers technologies needed to connect rural, northern and remote communities across Manitoba using satellite, fixed wireless and fiber optics technologies.
In a release, the Federal government said that the funding comes from the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF). The program aims to help Canadians in rural, remote and Indigenous communities access reliable high-speed internet and mobile services.
The UBF is a $3.225 billion investment by the government, with the goal of delivering high-speed internet access to 98 percent of Canadians by 2026 and achieving 100 percent coverage by 2030. Since 2015, the federal government has invested $262 million in connectivity projects in Manitoba.
“In 2024, a reliable mobile connection should be a part of everyday life. And having one means help is just a call away in case of emergency,” said the Honourable Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, in a release.
“These communities are truly underserved in Canada. About 90 per cent of the homes have zero internet access,” says Joe Hickey, president and founder of ROCK Networks, part of the PomeGran group.
Currently, these communities rely on C-band satellite from Telesat, which basically enables just enough bandwidth to connect essential services like the First Nation band office, the school and the Nursing station, Hickey says.
Two pieces of technology are central to this project, both supplied by ROCK Networks to BCN. The first is the enhanced connectivity powered by low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites from Eutelsat OneWeb, which offers broadband satellite Internet services in low Earth orbit. The second is the 5G mobility solution, primarily provided by Nokia.
“An LEO, or Low Earth Orbit solution, is closer to the earth, which means that communication from your device to the satellite and back down to other people is faster,” says Hickey.
Deploying the updated technology to these communities requires new infrastructure, including new tower sites and equipment shelters, to ensure everything is sustainable for the next 20 years.
In addition to the $7.5 million from the federal government, Hickey says they have also applied to the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) Indigenous Fund for additional funding. They have also applied to the federal government under the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Broadband Fund to subsidize satellite airtime in these communities and ensure operational support is in place.
The Auditor General’s report on connectivity in rural and remote areas found that in 2021, nearly 91 per cent of households across Canada had internet access that met minimum connection speed targets set by the federal government — 50 megabits per second for downloading and 10 megabits per second for uploading (50/10 Mbps.)
For households in rural and remote areas, that decreased to around 60 per cent and dropped to about 43 per cent for households on reserves. The report made it clear – this leads to a lack of opportunity for participation in the digital economy and affects access to services like remote health care or education, according to the report.
For Chief Roland Hamilton of Bloodvein First Nation, poor connectivity has been a longstanding issue.
“[Connectivity] has been very poor and sporadic. For as long as I can remember, it’s been like this. We don’t have cell service here,” he says. “When there’s an emergency, we don’t have any way of communicating.”
Bloodvein First Nation, home to approximately 1,300 residents and located 193 kilometers north of Winnipeg on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg, currently relies on satellite phones for communication in emergencies.
“For our health department, we bought satellite phones, and the same goes for the RCMP. We rely on those for communication.”
For Hamilton, the new changes are a long time coming, and a more-than-welcome improvement. “It’s about time, I think,” he says. “This will benefit everyone, even visitors that come here.”
Chief Hamilton hopes the community also sees economic benefits from the improved connectivity.
“Hopefully we get local people trained who can come here to install and repair [the new technology],” he says. “Some new jobs will benefit us.”
Neepin agrees and aims to maximize local employment opportunities throughout the project.
“We’re Indigenous-owned and we want to make sure we procure all of our services through Indigenous companies,” Neepin says. “That’s our main focus — to give the benefits to our community and maximize the Indigenous component.”
Hickey says that the improvements in connectivity will benefit these communities in numerous ways.
“These communities will have access to virtual health, school learning, things that we take for granted,” he says. “There’s also the economic development aspect. In today’s world, if you’re not online, your business doesn’t really exist. So, it’s also enabling e-commerce and opening that opportunity.”
Many of these communities are accessible only by fly-in-fly-out or during the ice road season, which is typically late January to early March. However, this past year, the ice road season lasted about a month because of the milder winter.
“Because of the short time window, we have to have everything ready to go by the first couple weeks of January in 2025,” Hickey says.
Once the CIB funding is secured, Hickey says they can begin capital works for the other 10 northern communities, including erecting towers, installing 5G wireless and setting up satellite terminals.
For Hickey, the goal is to support BCN.
“We’re an enabling company — but this will be First Nation-owned,” he says. “BCN will be the first 5G wireless First Nation company in Canada, and it’s in Manitoba.”
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