YELLOWKNIFE – In preparation for local competition in its territory, incumbent Northwestel said Monday that it is rolling out a new home telephone service to its cable customers in Yellowknife.
Called Cable Home Phone, the service uses the same high-speed broadband network as the company’s Internet and cable television services, and includes traditional landline features such as call display, call waiting, call forwarding, and voicemail.
Customers may also opt to add on a new long distance plan offering unlimited, anytime long distance calling for $9.95 per month when bundled with Northwestel’s digital TV and Internet services.
“Cable Home Phone is a common way of delivering phone service in southern Canada but it is new to the North,” said Curtis Shaw, VP of marketing, in the announcement. “As part of this project, Northwestel invested more than $400,000 to improve the reliability of the Yellowknife cable network, including placing back-up power infrastructure throughout the city. Cable Internet and other advanced services will continue to work in the event of any commercial power interruption.”
The CRTC said last December that it would open parts of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut to local telephone competition starting in May 2012.
