by Nancy Gardiner
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 04/97) - There's good news and bad news from the phone company.

NorthwesTel has won approval for a hike in basic monthly telephone charges of $4 per customer line in the western NWT. Long-distance rates, however, will drop more than originally expected as part of ongoing rate rebalancing.

But because the toll rates are already lower and heavily subsidized in Nunavut, they won't apply there.

"We didn't ask for a decrease in Nunavut," said Anne Grainger, spokesperson for NorthwesTel in Whitehorse.

The new rates took effect Aug. 1, 1997. NorthwesTel submitted the change application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in January.

The decrease in long-distance rates for western NWT customers will be 17.25 per cent for calls to Alberta and British Columbia, rather than the original 15 per cent proposed by NorthwesTel.

A decrease of 10.5 per cent will take effect for long-distance calls from the western operating area to other Canadian provinces, rather than the 4.25 per cent proposed by NorthwesTel.

"Long-distance rate decreases will be greater than originally proposed because the CRTC believes lower rates will prompt more customer calling and longer customer calls," said Mark Walker, director of business development, in a press release.

Long-distance rates will vary depending on where the customers call and the length of their calls.

Local rate increases apply to residential, single and multi-line business access, fixed-station manual mobile phones, Ruraltel and Centrex units.

This is the second rate rebalancing application approved by the CRTC. In 1995, NorthwesTel increased local rates by $3 and decreased long distance by seven per cent.

NorthwesTel Inc. serves 100,000 customers in the NWT, Yukon and northern British Columbia.