Checking Facebook in the Arctic?

Desolated areas like Svalbard, Greenland and northernmost America have no broadband connection. Satellites that orbit above the equator do not cover the northern areas above latitude 75° north because of the earth’s curvature. Increased activity in the Arctic has made broadband services more important than ever to the national and international companies operating in this area.

“Satellites are the only possible solution for broadband communication in the Arctic and Northern Regions. Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) and the Norwegian Space Centre have therefore established a joint project to review satellite broadband communication for this area,” said Cato Halsaa, Vice President and CEO at TSBc (pictured right). The project “Arctic Satellite Communications” (ASK) has been established to run for two years.

Cato adds that the project is being considered in conjunction with TSBc’s newest satellite, THOR 7, which is due to commence commercial operations in 2014.

Great demand from various industries

Industries including shipping, oil and gas, fishing, tourism, as well as meteorological and environmental monitoring services, have altogether shown particular interest in this Polar Region – on land and at sea.

To find out more about the customer base, many participants from these industries were invited to a seminar hosted by Telenor and Norwegian Space Center. Over a hundred participants told about their requirements beyond the 72nd parallel when the broadband services starts to get poorer.

Providing lifesaving services – and social media

One of the participants, the Trondheim-based company Electro Magnetic Geo Services (EMGS), operates a little beyond the ‘edge’. Their ships sail up to 74.5 degrees north searching for hydrocarbons below the seafloor.

“To us, navigation is especially important. We must be able to register our finds with an accuracy of within 30 metres. For us, broadband will clearly be extremely beneficial with regard to navigation. But it also means our customers will be able to get information from us directly. Today we have to save the data on a hard disk. Sometimes we also have to interrupt the operation and head south to find areas with adequate coverage for transmitting data,” says Hans Christian Juul, Manager Special Projects, Acquisition Department, EMGS.

He adds that broadband coverage in these areas is also important for safety and welfare. “We now have doctors on board. But we also have an arrangement with Haukeland Hospital so that we can call the hospital for consultations. With broadband we could have used a video camera during consultations. I must also add that adequate and secure access via social media is essential for us. As soon as the ships are beyond contact there is a storm of calls to our switchboard. Ensuring that we can provide staff with good communication with the outside world is an important factor that helps us compete for engineers,” said Juul.

To date, no other players have plans ready for broadband coverage in the European Arctic Region.