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Game-changer at Arctic broadband summit Quintillion hero of Barrow summit; OneWeb has exciting project on horizon; private investors Guggenheim, NxtVn, Cooper on panel KAY CASHMAN Petroleum News
In mid-July, tech industry experts, policy leaders and pan-Arctic executives and residents met for two days in Barrow, Alaska, to discuss the critical need for high-speed broadband across the circumpolar Arctic, and how to best prepare for the opportunities and challenges the new technology will bring. One technology could, in fact, be a game-changer, Tara Sweeney said following the summit.
An “exciting project on the horizon” was presented by Greg Wyler, founder of OneWeb. “He took us through his company’s vision of revolutionizing the high-speed Internet industry, using low-cost, user-installed small satellite receivers. This idea, if it works out, could bring 21st century opportunities to locations and communities that would not have the access to this technology otherwise. It really could be a game-changer,” she said.
Sweeney serves as chair of the Arctic Economic Council as well as executive vice president of external affairs for Arctic Slope Regional Corp. The council and its telecommunications working group were the organizers of the Top of the World Arctic Broadband Summit.
Quintillion on schedule to lay cable Prudhoe to Nome Presentations included the latest on the Quintillion project, in which ASRC is a minority partner.
It “was particularly interesting to receive an update on the Quintillion Subsea Cable Project from the president and CEO of Quintillion, Elizabeth Pierce,” Sweeney said. “The first phase of this monumental project is underway this summer, with more than 450 employees working on the project - from the North Slope to the Northwest Arctic. The amount of data the cable can handle - 30 terabits a second, with the possibility of doubling that capacity - is just amazing and unlike anything we’ve ever seen on the Slope.”
Anchorage-based Quintillion Networks, the Alaska arm of the international Canadian-led Arctic Fibre project, is working on a 10,000-mile intercontinental subsea fiber system that will eventually connect London and Tokyo by way of Alaska and Canada’s Arctic.
The first intercontinental cable system, Pierce said, it will rely on terrestrial cable installation along Alaska’s northern coastline, including Nome, Kotzebue, Point Hope, Wainwright and Barrow.
The fiber runs from the Kuparuk and Colville units to Pump Station 1 of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The terrestrial sites will lead to an undersea cable from Nome to Prudhoe Bay, expected to be completed in October.
One cable-laying vessel made port in Dutch Harbor while the summit was in session, stopping on its way up the coast. Its sister ship is on its way from France. Two other ships are already in Nome.
Crews will bury more than 1,176 miles of cable and install onshore connections, with operations taking place simultaneously across hundreds of miles on land and sea, Pierce said.
The company began burying a new fiber optic cable from Prudhoe Bay to Fairbanks a year and a half ago along the Dalton and Elliott highways. In Fairbanks, it will connect to existing fiber optic cable systems to the Lower 48, Pierce said, noting that Quintillion can double capacity “just by changing out cards with existing technology.”
Per a recent Alaska Dispatch report, Matt Boyer, a senior adviser at Cooper Investment Partners, a New York fund and major investor in the project, told summit attendees, “The original idea was to build a subsea cable from Europe to Asia and stop off in Alaska along the way, almost as an afterthought.”
The second phase of Quintillion’s project is laying undersea cable from Nome to Japan.
Phase three will be the trans-Canada line to England.
Government incentives critical Summit discussions included a panel on government’s role in Arctic broadband.
“We were fortunate to have representatives from our congressional delegation, the Federal Communication Commission’s International Bureau, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the summit,” Sweeney said. “The delegation’s representatives shared a few words about their commitment to reliable communications and increased capacity in the Arctic, and I was encouraged to hear their support on the federal level. We continue to look for their assistance in navigating regulatory hurdles and for setting the standard in how governments can support this technology.”
Walker administration representatives “also voiced support for increased Arctic connectivity and its importance to national security, food security, marine safety and situational awareness,” she said. Investment panelists included Guggenheim, NxtVn, Cooper Members of a private investment panel discussed attracting investors, barriers to investment and key criteria that are prerequisites for investment including natural, political, economic and social, as well as Arctic opportunities and new technological innovations that could increase connectivity.
Panelists included moderator Ronald Eidshaug, vice president of congressional and public affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Bob McCoy, director of the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Michael Perkinson, chief of staff for the chief investment officer, Guggenheim Partners; Kahled Sedrak, founder and CEO, NxtVn Group, Netherlands/Finland; Krag Johnsen, vice president of business operations, GCI; and the previously mentioned Cooper Investment’s Boyer.
Boyer noted that his firm has a “long-dated investment horizon” and can afford to take a different view on things than other companies might.
Maritime investment important component A fourth panel, Open for Business - Fostering Arctic Economic Growth through Maritime Transportation Infrastructure Development, discussed reliable broadband connectivity and Arctic maritime transportation infrastructure’s importance to the perpetuation of Arctic livelihoods and economies.
This panel explored the importance of situational awareness for maritime vessels, challenges of navigating through the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route, the need for pan-Arctic response operation capabilities, and the role of reliable communication infrastructure in maritime safety, and more.
Panelists included moderator Wayne Westlake, president and CEO, NANA Regional Corp.; Gail Schubert, president and CEO, Bering Straits Native Corp.; Arnold Brower Jr, executive director, Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission; Angel Corona, NOAA National Weather System, Alaska Region, Chief Systems Operation Division; and Linda Leary.
Leary is president of Edison Chouest Alaska subsidiary Fairweather LLC.
Edison Chouest Offshore will take over the oil tanker escort and spill response duties out of Valdez in July 2018, per a recently signed 10-year contract with Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.
The company also has the only privately owned ice-capable ship in Alaska’s far north, the MV Aiviq, having brought in the new 360-foot ice-class anchor handler for Shell’s recent Arctic drilling activity (see sidebar).
In an interview with Petroleum News, Leary said the event was “very exciting. There were people there from all over the Arctic,” which led not only to interesting presentations but stimulating conversations.
Fairweather, she said, received a lot of kudos for its “four com centers,” set up this summer, under a private contract with Shell.
Quintillion, however, was “the hero of the whole conference,” Leary said.
There were essentially three major sections for the maritime panel, the first of which was tourism.
“You’ve got to have ports deep enough to accommodate the big cruise ships. Right now only Port Clarence can handle the really large ones.”
At other ports, she said, such as Nome, passengers have to be lightered in.
The other two sections dealt with subsistence and communications.
When residents are traveling for subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering, it is “important to know where they are,” Leary said.
Iridium, OneWeb, ORION reps spoke Nearly 40 speakers participated in the conference, coming from as far away as Finland, including Wyler from OneWeb; Ali Abbas Mehboob Hirji, chief of staff of Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network, or ORION; and, Bryan J. Hartin, executive vice president, sales and marketing of Iridium Communications, who talked about connectivity in the high-high North.
Wyler told Petroleum News in an email that OneWeb “will work closely with its Arctic partners to make broadband access available for every home and business in every community.”
He congratulated the sponsors for hosting an “excellent” summit, which “introduced OneWeb to many new potential partners, helped us understand more about the Arctic needs and reinforced the importance of our mission.”
Following the summit, ORION’s chief of staff said, “As an attendee, I understood that the introduction of broadband to the Arctic is a community effort - beyond the technical expertise and financial investments, a community strategy is required to ensure that the technology is well utilized. In the case of the Arctic, it is a matter of how do we advance these communities into the global ecosystem of economics, trade and exchange. It is a challenge of globalization - how do we take local capacities, global.”
A major issue, he said, is the “cost of implementation, access and maintenance.”
When asked what part ORION plays in bringing high-speed broadband to the Arctic, he said. “ORION is the network upon which numerous research projects occur. Various institutions in Ontario are working on issues in the Arctic and we are the backbone network responsible for enabling the transfer of big data and computing.”
In an email following the summit, Hartin said, “Iridium plays a major role in providing connectivity options for remote areas in the Arctic, particularly across land mobile, maritime and aviation markets. Iridium’s Low Earth Orbit constellation provides superior, truly global coverage in the Arctic compared to other satellite networks, particularly geostationary satellites which do not cover the Arctic.”
While the summit “focused on terrestrial options for providing broadband to different areas in Alaska, Iridium plays a complementary role by providing satellite connectivity where the terrestrial broadband deployments cannot reach.”
Iridium, Hartin said, is “about to start launching its next-generation constellation, Iridium NEXT, which will replace its current network and provide new services and enhanced capabilities such as faster speeds. Iridium NEXT will be backwards compatible, ensuring the products you use today will work on the new network, further positioning Iridium to address the unique connectivity requirements in the Arctic today and into the future.”
Sweeney said attendees were able to see ”firsthand the many challenges we experience in the Arctic and the importance of using broadband as a tool to bring opportunities to the north - like educational, health and economic growth benefits. Improved connectivity capacity is a problem all too common in many parts of the Arctic, and I’m pleased that industry leaders are committed to helping us find solutions.”
The summit was broadcast live on KBRW Radio and the program was simulcast worldwide on the Internet.
“We had more than 90 people registered,” Sweeney said, “and there were certainly more from the North Slope who heard about the summit and stopped by,” the result of KBRW’s broadcast and livestream on the Internet.
The summit was also co-hosted by the Iñuit Arctic Business Alliance and ASRC.
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