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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Northern telecommunications companies spoke out at a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearing last week over BCE Inc.'s acquisition of Astral Media and how a fund related to the purchase can be used.

SSI Micro Ltd. and an ICE Wireless-Iristel Inc. partnership railed against the extension of $40 million to BCE subsidiary NorthwesTel Inc., as part of public benefits spending that would be required as a result of the takeover deal.

"Bell's 'Astral component' does not remotely meet or comply with the commission's 'benefits test' for broadcasting transfers of control," stated Dean Proctor, chief development officer at SSI in an e-mail.

"And even more importantly, the proposal itself does nothing to address the real communications needs for the North," Proctor said.

Samer Bishay, president of both Ice Wireless and Iristel, testified that channelling money from the Astral deal to NorthwesTel would be anti-competitive for the North.

"We realize that $40 million inside this multi-billion-dollar Astral deal doesn't add up to a hill of beans to a giant like Bell," Bishay said. "But for Canadians in the North and competitors to NorthwesTel, it is a huge hill of beans."

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