Yukon looks south to Alaska for redundant fibre optic line

The Yukon government wants to know if there's a company capable of building and operating a fibre optic line between Whitehorse and Skagway, AK.

The South Klondike fibre optic linkwould join an underwater fibre line that runs down the west coast from Skagwayto Seattle, WA.

"Really this is part of a project to look at getting a redundant fibre optic line. So a single cut to a fibre cable wouldn'tcause an outage," saysSteveSorochan, Yukon's director of technology andtelecommunicationsdevelopment.

The territory is trying to decide if the Skagway route is more viable than a plan for a line up the Dempster Highwaythat would link to an existing line in the Northwest Territories. The estimated cost of that project has more than doubled to more than $80 million since the former Yukon government announced it in 2015.

Sorochansays information gathered from an expression of interest from companies wanting to be involved in aSouth Klondike fibre link will help determine the better of the two options.

Although the idea of connecting a redundant line though Alaska has been previously dismissed, Sorochansays it's back on the table because there's now a fibre optic line in the LynnCanalthat connectsSkagwayto Juneau.

"That made the South Klondike more attractive and caused us to look at both options again."

Andrew Anderson, with Northwestel,hopes the government will stick with the plan to go north, even though the estimated cost of the project has increased significantly.

"We're committed to seeing it through and we're optimistic theproject will succeed."

He says theDempsteroption wouldkeep jobs and investment in the northern Canada.