Northern broadband customers win with new rates, says SSi

YELLOWKNIFE - Northern broadband service provider SSi says the CRTC’s decision to “remedy damage” caused by Northwestel’s practice of overcharging competitors for wholesale terrestrial backbone services will restore telecom competition in the north. SSi claimed that Northwestel, the only supplier of such services in the North, was charging competitors wholesale rates that were thirteen to thirty times higher than in the south, and several times higher than its own retail pricing. In January of 2012 the CRTC directed Northwestel to file cost studies to justify its backbone connectivity rates. Northwestel filed Tariff Notice 883A with proposed Wholesale Connect rates...