Good morning everyone. I'm happy to be here to speak to everybody about the work we've been doing and some of the challenges we have in northwestern Ontario.
My name is David Brown. I'm the CEO and co-owner of FSET. We're an information and technology services company based out of Kenora, Ontario. We provide services and solutions to both the public and private sectors. We have more than 50 years of combined experienced within law enforcement and another 40-plus years in health care.
Our customers are based out of Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec. We're doing some other work, not just here in Canada, but conversations outside.
I've spent the last two decades navigating infrastructure and communication challenges for indigenous communities across the region here in northwestern Ontario and advocating on their behalf. In September 2020, I reached out to our local telco within the region in an attempt to purchase and upgrade much-needed bandwidth for the community of Pikangikum First Nation.
At the community's discretion and direction, and with money in hand, my instructions were to do whatever I had to do to improve their situation. This was my first attempt at improving their situation, but it certainly was not theirs. The lack of usable broadband available to them meant an inability for programs and services to be delivered to the community—for health, education, mental health, justice, local government, financial services, legal services and the list goes on. We're not talking about recreational use. We're talking about quality of life here for these communities.
These attempts through traditional means, as was often the case in my 20 years of trying to do this for indigenous communities, did not prove fruitful. Traditional services, terrestrial-based solutions, telcos.... This is what it's like for indigenous communities to try to work with the big three companies within Canada.
It is not because they provide the best or most reliable service. It is not because they are cost-effective. It is not because they are agile and scalable. They are just the opposite. It is a slow, cumbersome process and there is no sense of urgency with regard to their deliverables. Terms and contracts are lengthy; they are typically looking for seven or ten years. They're looking for early termination fees ranging anywhere from 50% to 100% of those seven to ten years. Pricing is uncertain and additional fees and services often can and do apply.
When we reach out to a telecommunication company, this process, from the initial dialogue and conversation to the actual delivery of service, takes years. I've never been involved in a situation, a dialogue or a project where this hasn't taken a couple years or three years. Sometimes it can prove even more difficult. This isn't just putting a shovel in the ground. This is just having dialogue to move these types of things along.
This is what “business by default” looks like. Again, there simply have been no other options. These companies don't have to be efficient; they just have to be the only game in town. Therefore, it's the only option for indigenous services to work with and try to navigate. That hasn't worked. It doesn't work, and it's kind of the way things have been.
After eight months of trying to navigate this process yet again for the community of Pikangikum, the telco came back and offered 10% of the available bandwidth that this community already had. The 100% they had before I started this process was not enough. It was one gigabit of fibre to the community and that was being shared through a cable plan for 400 homes and businesses and 2,000 residents.
I liken that to an apartment complex or a hotel with hundreds of users all turning the tap on and you're trying to get water out of a half-inch main. When that happens, nobody gets water. In this case, nobody was getting Internet access.
That led us to approach things differently. I began the process of trying to reach somebody within SpaceX to think differently and to do something differently. Twenty years was enough for me, so I was tapping out.
Satellite is agile, scalable and timely. With SpaceX Starlink, the cost and pricing can be easily calculated per home, per community and per region. This is true whether it's one, 100 or 1,000 homes. From the time of purchase to serviceability, the process takes days, not years. The installation is simple. It takes minutes before you're online, and just about anyone can do it.
Consumers are under no obligations, there are no contracts and commitments, there are no early termination fees and seasonal use is an option.
Thanks, everyone. I look forward to your questions and providing feedback on the work we did in Pikangikum.