Northern consumers to have more choice for cell, home phone and Internet service

Northern consumers will have more choice for their Internet, residential and cellphone services with two private telecom companies joining forces to expand their footprint in the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.

Ice Wireless and Iristel said Monday they will bring competition to NorthwesTel, a subsidiary of BCE Inc.'s Bell Canada (TSX:BCE) that serves the North.

"In any monopoly regime, the consumer suffers — there's no competition," said Iristel president Samer Bishay, also recently named president of Ice Wireless.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission recently ordered that other competitive telephone companies be allowed to enter the three territories starting this May.

"What we're deploying is all of the next-generation products and services that everybody else in Canada has been enjoying and not Northern Canadians, basically," Bishay said.

Ice Wireless and Iristel will provide bundled communications to Canada's northern communities for a range of services, including Internet, local and long distance phone services, expanded cellular coverage with a faster network as well as data services such as Internet surfing. The services are expected to launch in July.

Bishay said a bundle including home phone, mobile phone and Internet services would cost about $75 a month, while just home phone service would be $15.99 monthly.

More than 100,000 people are spread across the North and the two companies are targeting about 20 per cent of the population, Bishay said from Toronto.

Northern consumers would also be offered virtual fax and virtual roaming services, international calling and the ability to keep local phone numbers, Bishay said.

"We're going to go into existing communities where we already have the network and once that's done move to areas where we don't currently have service," he said, adding it's a multimillion dollar investment.

Other competition is expected with Internet provider SSi Micro, based in Yellowknife, looking to launch local phone service in the North.

Telecom analyst Mark Goldberg said Northern consumers have been paying a lot for even long-distance services because they haven't had a lot of choice.

"To me it's always good to see that there are multiple players entering the market and they're doing it without massive government subsidies," said Goldberg of Toronto-area Mark Goldberg & Associates Inc.

"If you open up markets, investment will flow and you end up with choice and all that's needed to take place was getting out of the way to enable that," Goldberg said.

Goldberg said access to other providers can benefit prices but can also bring more innovative services to consumers.

Iristel says it's one of Canada's largest voice over Internet protocol service providers, while Ice Wireless is a telephone and Internet company that provides service to rural and remote communities in Northern Canada.

Cellular customers of Ice Wireless can use their mobile phones across Canada through a roaming agreement with Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B). Ice Wireless says its network covers 70 per cent of the Northwest Territories and 78 per cent of Yukon.