A Remote Indigenous Community Built One of Canada’s Fastest Fiber Networks

In February 2024, a young man in Canada's Arctic suffered from hypothermia and required urgent rescue. Elizabeth Kataquapit, then chief of Fort Albany First Nation in northeastern Ontario, was instrumental in organizing a search-and-rescue team using Facebook to coordinate the effort. Before this rescue, the community relied on a fiber-optic network built by Western James Bay Telecom Network (WJBTN), an indigenous-owned telecommunications company.

The network had significantly improved emergency response coordination by enabling the rescue squad to communicate with volunteers through a dedicated Facebook group, compared to the previous reliance on handheld radios.

Founded by Cree leaders, WJBTN aimed to provide high-speed internet to remote communities, with the first fiber-to-the-home network established in 2008 in the town of Moosonee, 135 km away from Fort Albany. However, after leasing the fiber-optic backbone from the local power company, the network's speed was insufficient for residents, often resulting in delays and strict data caps.

WJBTN's vision was to offer affordable fiber-optic connections to each of the roughly 1,000 homes and businesses across 300 km of the James Bay coast. In 2014, finance officer Brian Nakogee joined the company, tasked with designing a fiber network for this remote area. To achieve this goal, WJBTN had to build revenue and trust within the communities, convincing residents that the small organization would follow through on its plans.

Nakogee's efforts led to WJBTN becoming one of Canada's fastest fiber networks, while ensuring infrastructure ownership and revenue remained within the First Nations communities it served. This success story showcases how locally owned connectivity can transform even the hardest-to-serve remote areas.