WHITEHORSE, YT – The head of Toronto-based telecom Iristel Inc. told the CRTC today telecommunications in Canada’s northern region will only truly thrive in an environment that allows competition and innovation rather than the current status quo of Northwestel’s monopoly.
Speaking at the public hearing reviewing the regulatory framework and proposed modernization plan for Bell-subsidiary Northwestel, Iristel president and CEO Samer Bishay explained in a prepared statement that it planned to tell the Commission that the northern incumbent telephone company “has squandered millions of dollars of annual public subsidies with little upgrades in service…Simple things like call display are not available in most parts of the North and high-speed Internet, where available, is expensive.”
“We think [this hearing] boils down to two words: fairness and choice,” Mr. Bishay is said to have told the panel.
The hearing this week in Inuvik and Whitehorse comes two years after the CRTC opened Canada’s North to telecommunications competition, effectively ending NorthwesTel's regulated monopoly in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
At the time, the CRTC criticized NorthwesTel for its aging infrastructure and quality, reliability, and choice of services available to customers. It ordered the company to come up with a modernization plan that would lead to improved service and an atmosphere where competitors could enter and remain in the market.
The hearing continues in Whitehorse tomorrow.
