Nunavut Broadband's new features stalled once again
Hoped-for applications on Qiniq postponed indefinitely
[excerpt]
Long-suffering customers of Nunavut Broadband Development Corp.'s Qiniq
network have been told to brace for more delays in rolling out much-hyped
new services and service enhancements.
"This recent development is due directly to issues concerning the timing
and speed of funding flow from Infrastructure Canada, complicated by
matters beyond our control in the Northwest Territories," Nunavut
Broadband's president, Darrell Ohokannoak, said at Nunavut Broadband's
annual general meeting April 8.
NBDC's roughly 4,500 customers have anticipated for years the company's
roll-out of video-conferencing, real-time audio, large file transfer and
intra-community communication since they were first announced in March
2007.
The corporation has now "postponed with no new date set at this time"
those services, which had already been delayed by the NBDC lawsuit against
the Qulliq Energy Corporation, finally settled in 2009.
Other delayed services include shared documents, off-peak-hours, large
file transfer and dedicated bandwidth.
All these services are collectively the corporation's "Infrastructure II"
expansion.
Infrastructure II has been delayed again and again, with the most recent
postponement from October 2009 to March 2010.
But then SSi Micro — the Yellowknife-based provider which won the Nunavut
Broadband contract for these services — requested they be postponed
indefinitely.
