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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A hearing currently underway in the city may clear the way for SSI Micro Ltd. to enter the North's telecommunications market.

Jeff Philipp is the founder and president of SSI Micro Ltd., the Yellowknife-based Internet service provider which is hoping a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications hearing currently underway will clear the way for local competition in the North's telecommunications market. - Thandie Vela/NNSL photo

The two-day Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearing, which began Tuesday morning at The Yellowknife Inn, will review the current regulatory framework for NorthwesTel Inc.'s telecommunications service in the North, including the price cap, subsidies, and entrance of local competition.

CRTC spokesperson Denis Carmel said all aspects of the current regulations were put in place in 2007, with the condition to look at the regulatory framework again in 2011. One factor in the decision to grant NorthwesTel a monopoly over area code 867 phone numbers, was the lack of an intervener at the time with the capabilities to provide telecommunication service in competition with NorthwesTel.

Yellowknife-based SSI, which was founded in 1990 and has provided voice services in other parts of the world, did not present a proposal at the time to compete in the telecommunications services market in the North.

"It's a little bit backwards to think that you would leave a monopoly in place until somebody is ready to compete," SSI founder and president Jeff Philipp said, going into the hearings. "The difference now is that SSI is ready to launch voice services and we believe we have a better solution.

"We believe that we can bring competitive voice services to the North."

NorthwesTel is not opposed to local competition, spokesperson Emily Younker said.

"We are open to the idea," she said, "However, if a private local competitor were to come into our large centres, we don't want that to jeopardize in any way the sustainability of service to our more remote communities. That is a possibility however there are ways to mitigate it and that's contained in our proposal."

NorthwesTel is scheduled to present first at the public hearings, followed by SSI, then other participants, including representatives of the three territorial governments.

Carmel said the CRTC will likely have a decision from the hearings by the end of the year.

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