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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The new year may mean the making of important decisions about fair pricing and quality of Internet service in Canada's North.

NorthwesTel Inc. is required by the CRTC to file tariffs with cost studies for its V-Connect services this month. - NNSL file photo

Currently, the spotlight is on the Canadian Radio-television Commission's (CRTC) ruling last month that NorthwesTel file tariffs with cost studies for V-Connect services by Dec. 26, rendering the commission's decision NorthwesTel challenged in February of this year.

After the fee schedule and cost studies are filed this month, the commission will determine whether or not they are justified.

"I think it's very positive in terms of the decision," said Dean Proctor, chief development officer for SSi Micro Inc. "It doesn't give us numbers yet ... but they're doing their review properly.

"At the end of the day, the one decision that counts is what are those costs and how will that affect those rates. Without proper rates, there won't be any competition in the North and without proper rates, there won't be effective use of the Internet by Northerners because it's still too expensive."

Curtis Shaw, vice-president of consumer and small business markets for NorthwesTel Inc., said NorthwesTel will comply with the CRTC ruling, but stressed that high cost of capital investments and a limited Northern population contribute to rates being higher in the North than in the south.

The numbers that may come together this month are NorthwesTel's rates on wholesale Internet service, a service of particular interest to Internet service provides, such as SSi Micro, who are looking for a connection from local networks, such as theirs in Yellowknife, to the south.

Shaw described wholesale services as "big pipes between Northern and southern Canada" for Internet use.

NorthwesTel filed the tariffs with cost studies for this service earlier this year and a decision from the CRTC is expected this month or early 2013.

To come in 2013

In January 2013, NorthwesTel is expected to file an updated modernization plan as a result of a regulatory review the CRTC conducted in 2011.

The commission's resulting decision based on the review was that NorthwesTel Inc., which is considered to have a monopoly on telecommunications in the Canadian territories, was required to open its network to competition and file a plan to modernize its telecommunications infrastructure.

NorthwesTel announced a $273-million plan in July which hinged on CRTC approval of the purchase of Astral Media by Bell, NorthwesTel's parent company.

When the commission scrapped the purchase application in August, NortwesTel went back to the drawing board to come up with a scaled-back plan, which is what will be filed in Jan. 2013.

The CRTC announced last week it will host two public hearings regarding this new plan; one in Inuvik on June 17 and the other in Whitehorse on June 18.

Comments from the public on the modernization plan, regulations for NorthwesTel, subsidies for Northern telecommunications services, and the state of competition in Northern telecommunications are welcome until May 9, 2013.

-- with files from Myles Dolphin

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