YELLOWKNIFE – SSi Micro is expressing cautious optimism over the CRTC’s plans to review Northwestel’s fibre backbone service rates in the hopes that it may result in greater telecom competition in the Western Arctic.
The company, which is currently building a 4G-LTE and 2G wireless network in Nunavut, claims that Northwestel’s wholesale terrestrial backbone monopoly has allowed it to charge competitors wholesale rates that are up to 30 times higher than in Southern Canada, and several times higher than Northwestel’s own retail Internet pricing.
“For SSi, fair and open access to backbone transport service is essential to develop a dynamic and competitive telecoms market, and along with that, bring new investment, new innovation, consumer choice, and competitive local pricing”, reads a company statement. “Northwestel, as the only supplier of fibre backbone transport services in the North, is charging competitors wholesale rates that are punishingly and unjustifiably high. This pricing is, quite simply, preventing any meaningful telecoms competition in the Western Arctic, where Northwestel holds its fibre monopoly.”
“We are actively investing and competing in Nunavut, and stand ready and willing to do the same in the Western Arctic”, added SSi founder and CEO Jeff Philipp. “But until wholesale backbone rates are properly set, we are simply not able to compete and are forced to hold back investments that would otherwise greatly benefit consumers and business in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.”
Headquartered in Yellowknife and with a satellite teleport and network operations centre in Ottawa, SSi designs, builds and operates telecommunications networks around the world. In Canada, it has deployed advanced satellite and local broadband wireless facilities throughout Nunavut and in many communities of the Northwest Territories, an area spanning over three million square kilometres.
