# State of the Art of Telecommunication Systems in Isolated and Constrained Areas
## 3 Comparison of the Solutions
### Criteria for Comparing Solutions
#### 3.1.4 The Cost of the Telecommunication System  
The fourth criterion is economical. It simply consists of evaluating the operating cost of the system. This criterion is directly linked to the available budget for solution deployment. The first item of expenditure is the cost of manufacturing the telecommunication system associated with its deployment infrastructure. Loon and Stratobus balloons have relatively high manufacturing costs. It evokes sums in the order of 30 million Canadian dollars for the Stratobus. The structures of telecommunications towers are metallic or guyed with a moderate manufacturing cost of the order of a few tens of thousands Canadian dollars to a few hundred thousand Canadian dollars depending on the tower's height. Optical fiber is relatively expensive at around 28,225 CAD per kilometer. The Eleonore mine's connection to the network required the deployment of 124 km of optical fiber at the cost of 1.75 million CAD [77]. Indeed, it is necessary to dig trenches to bury optical fiber or use costly techniques to set up optical fiber underwater. Optical fiber is also very fragile, which requires many precautions and adequate equipment not only for its deployment. In fact, twenty-five million dollars have been spent since 2011 on the second portion of work for the installation of 800 km of optical fiber in Northern Quebec to connect nine Cree communities around James Bay (Canada). It should be noted that several lines were located 100 km from the James Bay road. Drones are, however, very interesting since we can cite the sum of a few thousand dollars for a drone. The second expense item is the deployment of the system. The flying solutions stand out: balloons and drones take off without any specific methods. It is merely a matter of going to the take-off site to inflate the helium balloon, and it takes off alone. It is the same for drones, without the inflation operation. Telecommunication towers are deployed for amounts ranging from a few hundred thousand Canadian dollars to a million Canadian dollars. The elements of the metal structure must indeed be routed by helicopter in isolated, therefore challenging to access, places. This follows the work of preparation of the ground to clear the implementation area and make a flat and robust surface. This difficulty is reinforced when the soil is rocky, as in the case of Nunavik. We can cite two explicit examples of the cost a telecommunication tower. The Tshuetin railway company had a telecommunication tower installed mainly for UHF antennas in Emeril (near Labrador city). The Emeril camp is accessible by road 500. This tower measures approximately 35 m. It was necessary to make a base to hold it. The cost of this telecommunications tower was 200,000 CAD. The material for building this tower was transported by road. The second example is still in the state of a call for tender. It was always a question of installing a telecommunication tower in Faden near Schefferville on the Tshuetin company's railway. The tower is 70 m in height. Its cost is around one million dollars, given that there is no road access to Faden and that a helicopter is required to transport the metal structure and complete the installation. As for the optical fiber, its installation requires digging trenches along its future course. Depending on the nature of the soils, rocky or not, and on the difficulty of access to the land (isolated environment), this can take time and significant human investment. Likewise, generally, the fiber is implanted in pieces that are joined together to achieve the desired total length. The technique for making these junctions is unique. These junctions must be flawlessly performed to limit signal losses. This requires special equipment and specialists. The installation of optical fiber to cover an area is therefore very expensive. The last item of expenditure is the cost of operating the telecommunication system; in other words, maintenance costs. The leading solution is an optical fiber.