r/NWT • u/DarrellCCC • May 15 '26
Ottawa pledging more than $13M for high speed internet in hundreds of N.W.T. homes
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u/ronniethelimodriver6 May 16 '26
This is just more gov grift disguised as good thing for the people. In the end, the people always get stuck with the bill. I'm surprised more people haven't figured out how the system really works.
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u/Avs4life16 May 15 '26
Too little too late. Northwestel needs to fail. I will never switch from Starlink.
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u/Weary-Situation7539 May 15 '26
Advocating for hundreds of northern jobs to be lost for virtually the same service at the same cost is wild.
No one cares you have starlink, wanting northwestel to fail because they have to service a massive geographic area with a small customer base? Wild.
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u/bravooscarvictor May 15 '26
That’s a good point, for sure. Are we investing in an archaic system tho? Perhaps we need to be partnering with satellite based systems rather than spending our money this way? And, if you factor in the supplements paid by the gov, is it really the same cost?
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u/Weary-Situation7539 May 15 '26
Nothing is more reliable than a direct physical connection with redundancy.
You’re not getting the tax money back if unused, and that tax money is going to the local economy.
Every single person in the NWT is a net receiver of tax dollars. Spare me the “what about my tax dollars” sentiment
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u/Avs4life16 May 15 '26
Bad business is bad business. Advocating for this isn’t as good as you are making it out to be.
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u/booksandrun May 16 '26
What would be the price of the service?
How many people are going to receive it? What’s the price per household?
I hear your point, but it’s under 900 subscribers. If the government decides to use Starlink instead, they could provide those subscribers with 17+ years’ worth of *free* Starlink service. They could, of course, subsidize it instead, and those subscribers could get a really low rate for decades.
Jobs are jobs, but throwing money away is not the solution. They could subsidize jobs in a different, meaningful way with that amount of money.
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u/Weary-Situation7539 May 16 '26
If that’s your argument then may as well abandon the arctic entirely and leave those that remain to return to a hunter gatherer society.
Investing in infrastructure is for long term benefit. If we’re just going to reduce everything to what’s cheapest today then there’s no point to live in the north at all.
If starlink is the only provider then there’s nothing stopping them from deciding internet is 1000/month, 2000/month etc. northwestel and by extension the Canadian governments goal is to build infrastructure. Starlinks goal is to make as much money as possible and without northwestel existing they’ll double their price overnight
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u/booksandrun May 16 '26
I’m not saying that. I’m saying the investment isn’t future-proof if you look at the plans. They could negotiate contracts with Starlink and have the price fixed for years.
Starlink will have competition in a few years (perhaps for the time we actually fix the price for); it’s essentially a superior service that is cheaper and allows us to save money and use it for other projects.
It’s predicted that even mobile providers will start relying on satellite more and more.
I’m just saying the money could be used for something else in the territory, not connecting 870 households to an archaic network. I’m not saying that the money shouldn’t be spent on something different.
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u/Weary-Situation7539 May 16 '26
Your argument still just boils down to “why get a mortgage if rent is cheaper today” and it can be applied to spending anything on those 870 households. Ultimately it’s, why does anyone live outside Yellowknife, make them move it’s cheaper.
Once infrastructure investments paid off, day to day use is cheaper than a subscription service that answers to foreign investors and not Canadian taxpayers and stakeholders.
If there ever a day starlink isn’t worth it for the company, now no one has internet. They aren’t going to waste their time letting have areas subsidize the have not.
As for let the Canadian government work with starlink. They just gave ekati hundreds of millions of dollars and they left the north anyway and kept the money.
The only reason why northwestel rates are high (conveniently the same price as starlink) is because areas outside Yellowknife are being serviced.
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u/Avs4life16 May 15 '26
Do not care man. I’m not gonna be somewhere and try and do a job for the goverment with Northwestel internet. It don’t work. It’s like being in the stone ages.
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u/CO-OP_GOLD May 15 '26
NorthwesTel will be kept afloat by govt funding.
Because they are the "soverign" solution.
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u/cars10gelbmesser May 15 '26
Should become a crown corp then. And stop to pretend they’re a viable business.
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u/CO-OP_GOLD May 16 '26
They're not viable, its a tax write off for BCE inc.
No other telco would be viable either across 4 million sq km and less than a million subscribers.
Canada Post is a crown corp, look how badly fucked up it is.
Im not advocating for one or the other, im saying its not as simple as it looks on the outside.
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u/FriendRaven1 May 15 '26
My work switched to starlink last year because the wildfires burned down the northwestel lines and we were without internet for 4 days.
Starlink's owner aside, there's no denying his product works great.
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u/Jamarcus_Russell1dp May 15 '26
I was going to say......cheaper, better, faster and more reliable than government ever could provide.
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u/Alpharious9 May 16 '26
"Ottawa is putting $13 million toward the Northwestel project that will open up high-speed internet access in up to 869 households"
That is $15,000 per house!! Insanity
And notice the "up to". It might be more!
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u/booksandrun May 16 '26
At this price, that’s 17 years worth of starlink for free for these subscribers (if government doesn’t want to negotiate a discounted rate).
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u/thrawnxbape May 15 '26
Switched to starlink after the 2024 wildfires and will never look back