Satellite dependency in Nunavut: a barrier to the territory's political realization

• Main Author: Rabouam, Célestine
• Other Authors: Institut français de géopolitique (IFG ), Centre de recherches et d'analyses géopolitiques (CRAG), Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8)-Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8)-Centre d’études russes, caucasiennes, est-européennes et centrasiatiques (CERCEC), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre Géopolitique de la Datasphère, Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8), Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis - Département de Géographie, Lassi Heininen, Justin Barnes & Heather Exner-Pirot
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: [SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography; [SHS.SCIPO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Political science; Arctic; inuit; Kivalliq; Nunavut; Qikiqtaaluk
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04380019; https://hal.science/hal-04380019/document; https://hal.science/hal-04380019/file/11_Rabouam_AY2023.pdf

International audience Officially created in 1999, Nunavut is Canada's youngest, largest and northernmost territory and no road network connects the 25 communities scattered across the territory. It is also the only Canadian territory to rely entirely on satellites for its communications and this situation contributes significantly to the isolation of the population, 85% of which is Inuit, and hinders the economic development and political governance of the territory. However, the development of telecommunications in Nunavut raises a major issue for the territorial government and the nunavummiut communities. Inuit organizations have been quick to take up the issue of Internet access, but despite these initial assertions, Nunavut remains the Canadian territory with the least access to the Internet. Two cable projects are currently being studied and/or developed, but the distances between the communities will not allow all 25 communities to be terrestrially connected in the short or medium term. To mitigate this problem, operators of low earth orbit satellite constellations such as Starlink have been deploying their services in Nunavut for several months and aim to compete with the players traditionally responsible for telecommunications in this territory. While Inuit associations are at the heart of the decision-making process for the development of cables (in the Qikiqtaaluk and Kivalliq regions), Starlink's takeover of a part of this market reinforces the geographic concentration of decision-making and organizational power in the South, whereas Inuit associations aspire to relocate these skills locally.