From the first cheer to the final finish line, the Arctic Winter Games are built on moments that bring us together.
Early mornings and nervous excitement. Team huddles and personal bests. Friends cheering from the stands and families cheering from hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away.
In 2026, those moments will not just be experienced in one place. They will be shared across the circumpolar North.
Northwestel is proud to support the Arctic Winter Games by delivering the connectivity that brings people together across venues, communities, and the North.
When athletes step onto the ice, track, or course, they are not just competing for medals, they are representing their communities, their cultures, and the people who helped them get there.
For many athletes, the moment does not end at the finish line. It continues with a call home.
That ability to connect in real time helps turn a personal victory into a shared one. It allows achievements to be celebrated as they happen, with the people who matter most, no matter the distance.
Behind the scenes, connectivity also supports the operations, communications, and coordination that keep the Games moving smoothly, allowing athletes, organizers, and fans to stay focused on the experience itself.
Powering an event of this scale draws on careful planning, resilient network design, and extensive experience delivering connectivity in northern environments.
Some venues are connected through Northwestel’s extensive fibre-powered network. Others require innovative approaches, including low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services powered by Eutelsat's OneWeb network, to deliver the capacity and reliability needed for a modern multi-venue event. These solutions are integrated and managed as a single network, designed to adapt to each site’s unique demands.
Smart network management using Fortinet technology allows traffic to be prioritized based on time of day and usage, ensuring critical services like event operations, broadcasting, and streaming remain reliable during peak demand. By combining fibre-powered technology, LEO satellites, and managed services, Northwestel is delivering a flexible, resilient network built to perform in real northern conditions.
Deploying this technology isn’t new for the Northwestel team. It’s invisible work that happens behind the scenes across the North. The Arctic Winter Games showcase how those proven capabilities can be brought together and adapted to support complex, multi-venue events across the North.
The approaches used to power the Games are already strengthening connectivity across the North supporting businesses, communities, and organizations every day.
But behind the technology are the technicians making it work. Teams planning, testing, adapting, and showing up to make sure everything is ready when it matters most.
From communities to champions, Northwestel supports the moments that matter.
By connecting the Arctic Winter Games, Northwestel is helping northern athletes share their stories, celebrate their achievements, and inspire the next generation today and into the future.
Because the future is shaped by the people and connections that bring us together.
The future is North.
Choose to discover the stories shaping our North
Northwestel is proud to serve 97 northern communities, each with a rich and unique Indigenous history, culture, and identity. We exist to help ignite the power of these First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities through the very best communications technology and services. We are committed to doing so in true partnership and consultation with Indigenous governments and other Northern Indigenous partners in a way that creates shared benefits for people in the North.
