YELLOWKNIFE – Ice Wireless and Iristel are joining forces to offer telecommunications and Internet services in the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut this summer.
Privately-held VoIP provider Iristel, which is a major shareholder in Ice, has been licensed by the CRTC as a carrier since 2000. It will go head-to-head with Bell-owned incumbent Northwestel on a range of telephone services including VoIP and wholesale long distance.
Iristel and Ice Wireless president Samer Bishay said that the competition will go a long way toward ending the "digital divide" between Canada's northern communities and populated areas in the south.
"Northwestel's monopoly is officially at an end," he said in Monday’s announcement. "We are proud to finally be able to give Northern Canadian residents a choice when it comes to their local phone company while at the same time launch an aggressive expansion of our cellular network across the North."
The CRTC approved telecommunications competition in the far north last December. Ice and Iristel said that they will launch “a viable bundled communications solution” through retail stores and other authorized dealers in Yellowknife by July 1st, and in other markets by the end of the summer.
