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INUVIK
Northwestel's $233-million modernization plan was the subject of a day-long hearing at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex on June 17.

Paul Flaherty, the president of Northwestel, was in Inuvik June 17 for a CRTC hearing on the company's modernization plan. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Paul Flaherty, the president and CEO of Northwestel, said the company was forging ahead with the plan while the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearings are ongoing. About two years ago, Northwestel was scolded by the commission, which was dissatisfied with the services it was offering Northern residents.

Flaherty said the plan would open a floodgate of services to most Northern residents quite comparable to what's available in the south or in select communities such as Inuvik.

"Ninety-nine per cent of the population will have access to next-generation wireless services, which Inuvik now enjoys. We've just put (4G service) into Aklavik and Fort McPherson. By the end of next year, every community in the NWT will have next-generation wireless services. We're pretty pleased with that," he said.

That means cutting-edge smart phones will work properly in those communities, which is a change from the past. Those changes should be fully operational within two years.

Internet services will see a boost as well, with download speeds increasing up to 16 megabits/second.

"We've just launched that in Inuvik and we have 30 to 40 customers who have signed up for that," he said.

"So all the communities in the NWT from Inuvik south will have that."

Those are all so-called terrestrial communities, serviced either by fibre-optic lines or microwave towers, Flaherty said. Communities further north, termed satellite communities, will continue with their present level of Internet service for the moment.

One of the company's pressing problems is the cost of increasing services hosted via satellite, Flaherty said. Called backhauling, the cost of transmission can be excessive.

"One of the challenges we have is the high cost of backhaul, which is the transmission price."

All communities will have access to enhanced calling features on landlines as well, Flaherty said, which represents another upgrade.

All of this won't make much in the way of ripples for Inuvik residents, he said. As a regional centre, it's already been enjoying services outlying communities can only wish for.

"Inuvik was the first community we launched the high-speed services, just within the last two weeks," he said.

The main improvements, aside from the increase in Internet speed, is also an increase in microwave capacity by the company. That should help alleviate any data bottlenecks locally.

"Overall, we're petty pleased with the plan we've got," he said. "I think there were some good questions being asked.

"I think we've got some challenging issues. When you look at the geography, it's four million square kilometres."

One of the sticking points during the hearing, Flaherty said, was the insistence by the CRTC panel that satellite communities be in on further upgrades. He reiterated the cost was too great for the problems to be addressed without some form of subsidies.

"The cost is too great for the number of people," he said. "A lot of people want the same things we have in the south, but there aren't enough people to support it.

"I think we had a good dialogue and put the issue out on the table. It's something we have to ask whether it's sustainable in the future. People come at it from different perspectives, of course."

Jean-Pierre Blais, the chair of the CRTC, called the talks "fruitful."

"I think we got a good conversation going," he said in an interview June 18. "I'm always appreciative when we have nice, frank responses and I think we had that starting with Northwestel and two of the territorial governments."

Blais said he believed it's the first time the CRTC has held a hearing in Inuvik. After visiting the area in the last two years, he said he thought it important for the commission members to see and experience the North for themselves.

"That's why I said, 'Let's go back.' It was important for us to come North. To our knowledge, it's the first time the CRTC has held hearings this far north. The chance to have a conversation with people directly who are from here is very important to us.

"It's part of my job to understand at least a little bit more of what's happening up here," he said. "It's part of the learning experience. We need to have people, no matter what their postal code is, to be part of the new digital reality."

It's also important from a Canadian sovereignty perspective, to have these services available at a cost-effective price, Blais said, instead of designating Northern areas as a region that can't expect the same opportunities as the rest of the country.

That might well mean those services will cost more, he said, and that's something people may have to accept.

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