WHITEHORSE and GATINEAU — Far north telecom provider Northwestel has received interim approval from the CRTC to increase the usage caps on several of its terrestrial Internet service packages, which the carrier is seeking to have permanently increased in a new tariff application submitted June 1.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 situation, Northwestel has applied several times to the Commission for temporary relief on residential Internet usage, including the waiving of data overage charges, which the Commission approved first in March, then in April and also in May.
The Bell-owned company, due to its dominant position in the north, remains heavily regulated by the Commission and must seek approval for changes such as these.
Now that Northwestel’s Covid-19 promotion is due to expire June 30, the carrier is now proposing to permanently increase the usage allowances on a number of the terrestrial Internet packages it offers to both residential and business customers. In a letter accompanying its June 1 application, Northwestel says the usage cap increases for various Internet packages would range between 7% and 100%, without any corresponding increase in the retail price.
“In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, Internet usage in the North has grown significantly, and as the country moves towards a recovery phase, we expect that customers will still require additional usage to support work-from-home and distance education,” reads the Northwestel letter.
“We recognize that our proposal increases costs and reduces revenues for certain DSL services that are already offered at rates significantly below costs and in such cases would not be able to pass a price floor test. However, we believe that customer, territorial government, and Commission support expressed earlier this year for extending our existing promotion and the increased usage demand across our network in light of the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrates customers’ need for increased data usage within our existing Internet service offerings and warrants approval of this TN (Tariff Notice 1084),” adds the letter.
On June 19, the Commission granted interim approval of Northwestel’s tariff application, effective July 1. The deadline for interventions is July 2, 2020.
Northwestel today posted information on its website regarding new monthly usage caps for its most popular regulated residential and business Internet packages. It says the changes will take effect July 1, and the new usage allowances will be automatically applied to those subscribers’ accounts whose Internet packages are getting a new monthly usage increase. Extra usage fees will still apply for usage exceeding the new allowances, Northwestel says.
