Who built the giant golf balls on the edge of Yellowknife, and why?

A field of giant polygons has appeared on the edge of Yellowknife. It’s there to help connect a new generation of satellites to Canada and the world.

The polygons house more than 20 antennas connecting Eutelsat OneWeb’s satellites to the internet using a Northwestel fibre-optic line from Yellowknife to Calgary.

If you drive through the city’s Engle Business District, on its western flank, you’ll see the array, which was built and is being managed by the Swedish Space Corporation – a company that also has a presence in Inuvik. Det’on Cho and Nahanni Construction were involved in the build, which was first announced last year.

The collection of antennas is called a satellite network portal, and an inauguration ceremony was held at the facility on Friday.

This is the first portal of its kind in Yellowknife. The antennas will help deliver internet access to northern communities that rely on low-Earth orbit satellites operated by OneWeb, through which Northwestel offers service to Colville Lake, Gamètì, Łútsël K’é, Paulatuk, Sambaa K’e, Sachs Harbour, Wekweètì and Ulukhaktok, as well as a range of remote mine sites.

Why build it in Yellowknife?

“Obviously, Canada is a huge, huge country. Why would we want to put this investment in a place called Yellowknife? A lot of it is based on how our network works,” said Eutelsat OneWeb’s Michael Proud at Friday’s inauguration.

“We’ve got little terminals sitting out in communities or on customers’ sites, and they transmit up to our satellite network. And our satellites, they fly backwards and forwards over the North Pole and the South Pole, basically receiving data that these units transmit up to them. What then happens is a satellite beams back down to a facility like this one.”

Eutelsat OneWeb has satellite network portals in Greenland and Alaska, but those didn’t “cover everything that we wanted to cover in Canada,” said Proud.

“So from a technical perspective, we needed to have something in Canada. There are a few places in Canada where this could happen [but] we need partners we can work with, and that really narrows the field down in terms of where we look to place our investment and our infrastructure.

“What we finally determined was that it’s not just about finding the place, it’s about finding the right partner to do business with.”

That partner, Proud said, was Northwestel – which earlier in the week announced it is set to be sold by Bell Canada to a consortium of northern Indigenous development corporations for up to $1 billion.

Eutelsat OneWeb needs Northwestel because unlike Starlink, the best-known operator of low-Earth orbit satellites, it doesn’t directly serve residential customers.

“We don’t go like the other guys do right onto the household. With all our antennas, we work through partners,” said Proud.

“In many, many ways, this is just the beginning. We’ve been operational, really, for 12 to 18 months within the northern territories. This gives us an incredible kickstart and a launchpad.”

Northwestel’s Deanna Cornfield said Yellowknife exists in what is known as a “high-pass area,” an area where satellites have more opportunities to connect with the ground.

“This, coupled with access to Northwestel’s fast fibre internet network, provided all the reasons necessary to develop a satellite network portal here in Yellowknife,” Cornfield said.

“What’s more, Yellowknife is an established, growing city … brimming with talented tech workers that are able to build and maintain a facility like this year-round.”

What do the domes do?

Each of the large golf ball-like polygons is a radome, a weatherproof enclosure that protects the antenna inside.

The antennas are all connected through troughs of cables that wind through the facility, carrying data to and from Northwestel’s fibre line. They communicate with satellites via microwave – and though you can’t see it, they swivel and reposition while inside the radome to connect with satellites as they pass.

The radome protects the antenna from snow, ice and wind. Within the radome, the equipment generates enough warmth to keep working through the winter without any extra heat. It’s rated to operate down to -40C, said Eutelsat OneWeb program manager Harley McDonald.

Diesel generators at the site can provide backup power for more than two days at a time if necessary.

Meanwhile, Northwestel took the opportunity on Friday to show off vehicles equipped with new technology that offers cell and internet service anywhere there’s a road.

A Ford F-150 at the satellite network portal parking lot bore a flat dish on its roof manufactured by satellite communications company Kymeta.

Northwestel representatives said the Kymeta dish allows the vehicle to produce a bubble around which people in the area can have access to cell and internet where that wouldn’t ordinarily be the case.

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