Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 07/05) - Taking advantage of smaller, yet-untapped cellphone markets, Ice Wireless - a joint venture between New North Networks of Inuvik and the Yukon Indian Development Corporation - is using state of the art technology to offer improved cellular telephone service to communities in the North, some for the first time.

Paul Komaromi of New North Networks says a new joint venture called Ice Wireless will be able to provide cutting edge cellphone service to the North's outlying communities. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo

"Nobody in the North is doing this at the moment," said New North Networks' Paul Komaromi of Ice Wireless.

Ice Wireless, which uses GSM technology or Global System for Mobile Communications, is a joint venture between New North Networks of Inuvik and the Yukon Indian Development Corporation.

Fido, a Canadian wireless communications company swallowed up by Rogers Wireless Inc. in 2004, was the first in the country to offer the technology in the late '90s.

Unlike analogue cell technology or GSM's digital predecessors - CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) - GSM can provide e-mail or Internet browsing.

As well, the GSM signals are encrypted and impossible to hack.

"And because of the technology, we can get our service out to more communities," added Komaromi.

NMI Mobility (a subsidiary of Bell Mobility) is the only other cell phone service provider in the NWT, offering digital service in Yellowknife and analogue service in Hay River, Fort Smith, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.

Typically, for cellphones to operate in a specific area, a switching station is necessary to allow users to make and receive calls. In other words, users must be within range of a switching station to make and receive calls.

Komaromi cites Fort McPherson as an example of a community not serviced by a switching station, thereby making it impossible to use cellphones in that community.

"These stations are the brains of any (cell) system," said New North's network manager John Boudreau. Boudreau explained the advantage of GSM technology, which only requires a single 'central switching' station, with base stations that can relay signals to the central switch. Ice Wireless's GSM service switcher is located at New North Networks' Inuvik headquarters.

"This allows us to not have to duplicate all the equipment in each community," he said.

With the cost of a switching station being in the $1 million range, the advantages of GSM's single station rather than multiple switchers are obvious.

As to whether or not Ice Wireless, which plans to unveil its new service in October in Inuvik, Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik, will face competition in smaller communities, Komaromi is confident the answer will be no.

"We're hedging our bets against the big guys bothering with the smaller markets," he said.

"When you are talking about a community of 1,000, there aren't enough customers to support more than one provider."

According to an NMI spokesperson, the company has no plans at the moment to expand into other regions of the NWT.