SSI History

SSI Micro was founded in Fort Providence, Northwest Territories in 1990, providing the North with a fully equipped sales, training and technical service center. At this time SSI Micro became the 13th division of a much larger group of companies operated by the Philipp family since 1965. They offered a vast range of services and employment opportunity in the community of Fort Providence including the hotel, coffee shop and gift shop. For many years the company also operated the ferry that provides the only road access from Southern Canada to the Northwest Territories.

Five years after SSI Micro opened its doors, the company played an integral role in bringing Internet services to the North and as a result, SSI Micro became one of the first Internet service providers in the Northwest Territories. At this time SSI expanded its operations and opened a retail store in Yellowknife, offering Internet, sales and technical services to all sectors of the economy. As the retail market matured and became more readily available in the North, SSI shifted its emphasis to specialized areas of Information Technology services including Local/Metropolitan Area Networks, Wide-area Networks, Frame Relay, Satellite/Wireless Communications and xDSL.

Continually seeking new and innovative technologies, and ways to provide the best services possible, SSI launched Skyline wireless in early 2005. This was our first residential High Speed offering, giving users the option of finally migrating out of the dial-up era. The technology used was state of the art, and at the time, the first of its kind implemented in Canada.

In 2006 our billing and management system was not meeting up to our ever changing requirements and after months of research we set upon the challenge of designing and building our own system. Aria is now a one of a kind system that is offered as part of a complete turnkey solution for ISPs around the world.

SSI reached out beyond Canada and began providing communications services to non-profit organizations such as Care International, building infrastructure in Africa and Indonesia where affordable voice and data solutions were desperately needed. Since then we have also built infrastructure in Kiribati, a country located in the central South Pacific. We also started building our award winning networks at home in Canada. The Qiniq network was built to provide affordable Broadband Internet services to 25 Nunavut communities. Servicing a population of 29,000 people dispersed over 2 million square miles. The Qiniq network improves the lives of Nunavummiut by providing access to cost effective broadband connectivity which was previously impossible, as no broadband infrastructure existed that the average person could readily make use of, due to cost and availability factors. Their most recent project completion is a similar network in the Northwest Territories. AirWare services 30 communities in the Northwest Territories, bringing the same high quality broadband services to all communities regardless of population density. With the goal of giving all northern resident equal access to quality services we have deployed infrastructure in even the smallest of communities, some of which have as few as 55 residents.

Today, these networks are growing rapidly and SSI is busy testing and designing new service offerings. Roaming launched recently allowing residents of both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories to travel around both territories with their modem and access their account instantly.

SSI is currently working on adding digital voice and hotspot options to their northern networks. There are many things on the SSI Micro “want to do” check list, as new technologies come out SSI is typically the first to get their hands on them for testing purposes. The quest for the next great thing, with the devoted goal of improving and providing affordable communications solutions across the globe is always high on the list of priorities. Watch for more news, there is more to come.