Doig River First Nation unveils high speed internet upgrade

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Doig River First Nation Chief Trevor Makadahay (seated) and members of council were joined by partners and sponsors at the groundbreaking of fiber internet on August 7th, 2024. (Ed Hitchins, energeticcity.ca)

ROSE PRAIRIE, B.C. — Members of a large northeast B.C. First Nation community will soon have access to high-speed internet connectivity.

Doig River First Nation (DRFN) IT manager Thomas Whitton shared the details with Energeticcity.ca about the full upgrade, which is partially up and will be fully operational by the end of summer thanks to a solar power project.

Whitton said upgrading the entire community was “a meaningful step forward,” and one of his first goals when he became IT manager for DRFN back in 2022.

“What we had in place previously was a wireless network that the band provided to the community,” said Whitton. “We saw anywhere from five megabits per second up [and] capped out at maybe 35 megabits per second. If you had one device, you’d be able to run Netflix off of 35 megabits per second.

“You couldn’t run high-definition videos. You couldn’t game, stream or call family or friends. [The] issue is exacerbated by the fact there is very limited to no cell phone signal out there, so the connectivity was less than adequate for the community.”

Whitton said the internet upgrade is related to the PureFibre fibre optic internet groundbreaking from Telus which took place last August.

“They laid a line all the way up towards Blueberry River First Nations, and all the way around to Doig. The beauty of that is now it’s a redundant line for DRFN. We’re not just based off of one fiber line. There’s now a fiber line coming directly from Fort St. John through Petersen’s Crossing.”

The internet now connects at nearly one gig per second, so Whitton said community members can now “do what they want to do.”

“[It’s] just a very cool project,” said Whitton. “It’s connecting the community. The whole community is excited about it. I hear from Elders every day that they’re excited to get it, and the day that they get it they say, ‘oh my gosh, everything is so much faster. We get cable, we get phone [access]. We get everything bundled into one.’ It’s so simple and it’s so nice.”

More details about DRFN’s projects are available on its website.