TORONTO – The most northerly community in North America is Grise Fiord, one of the coldest inhabited places on Earth which is only reachable by air. But now, thanks to the hard work of Bell technicians, the 129 inhabitants are feeling a little less isolated thanks to the new LTE cell tower there.
Stephen Howe, executive vice-president and chief technology officer at Bell provided the chilling story to a lunchtime audience on the last day of the 2018 Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday.
Just how far north is Grise Fiord (which means “pig inlet” in Norwegian)? It’s hundreds of kilometres north of King William Island – where the doomed Franklin expedition of 1847 ended when two ships under Franklin’s command got stuck in the ice searching for the North West passage and Franklin perished. Bell has also established a cell tower there as well, so as Howe joked to the audience “If Franklin was travelling today he could have called for help.”
Grise Fiord is one of 25 new and upgraded cell sites that Bell and its Northwestel division has established in Canada’s far north over the last few years. And that’s no small accomplishment.
“All the parts must be packed shipped and assembled on site” explained Howe. Once the ship gets to a site the technicians have less than 40 days to assemble the 25-metre high tower before the coming ice make it impossible.
The ship is loaded in Montreal and then sails from June to September making stops on the way to Grise Fiord. By the time they finally get there in September they have to wait another year to assemble the cell tower because of the cold and darkness. In fact, to just lay down the foundation for the tower they have to melt away the permafrost with a custom natural gas heater.
Just part of being a telecom provider in Canada.
