Ice Wireless launches competing cellphone service in Iqaluit

The new Ice Wireless service in Iqaluit will support GSM-capable smartphones like the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy.

Ice Wireless announced Nov. 22 the launch of new GSM wireless service in Iqaluit that offers residents access to a network that supports smartphones and tablets.

The company is just the second to offer cellphone service in the Nunavut capital, which until now has been served only by Bell Mobility’s 3G network.

Ice Wireless products will run on a 3G network that can deliver speeds of up to “21 megabits per second,” the company stated in a Nov. 22 news release.

Unlike Bell, the new cellphone provider supports smartphones and tablets.

“We’re proud to bring 21st century wireless phones to a community that deserves more than being treated as an afterthought,” Samer Bishay, president and CEO of Ice Wireless, said in the news release.

On its website Nov. 22, the company was offering plans for six different smartphones.

Ice Wireless touted its service as “the most advanced 3G network in Northern Canada.”

In collaboration with telecom provider Iristel, the company stated it is offering features such as “high definition voice with crystal clear quality” and a “presence management” feature that “enables users to hop a call from landline to mobile without having to drop the call.”

An “alternate numbers” feature allows users to assign a local Iqaluit number with a second number in an area code in southern Canada.

This allows calls between southern cities and Iqaluit to connect “without either party incurring extra charges,” the company stated in the news release.

Ice Wireless is a partnership between Iristel and a company in Inuvik owned by the Zubko family.

They have two cellphone transmission towers in Iqaluit, which can eventually increase to 4G-level capability – the same found in large cities in the south, the company stated.

“This launch in Iqaluit is part of this year’s $12.4 million investment plan to expand and enhance telecommunications services in 9 cities and towns across the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut,” the company stated.

Ice Wireless will back up its launch with a grand opening Nov. 23 at the QITC store in Iqaluit, at the Four Corners in the Igluvut building.

Bell Mobility plans to upgrade its cellphone service in Iqaluit to 4G by fall of 2014.

For the territory as a whole, the company said it is following through on a $233-million modernization plan started by Northwestel across the three territories.

Bell Mobility and Northwestel jointly announced Oct. 21 that Bell Mobility is taking over Northwestel’s cellphone assets.

“The plan will see Bell Mobility bring high-speed wireless service to a minimum of 22 more communities across the North by the end of 2017,” Bell spokesperson Jacqueline Michelis told Nunatsiaq News by e-mail.

The modernization plan includes an upgrade to 4G mobile service in the communities of Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay “by the end of 2013,” Michelis said.

Offering 4G service through satellite transmissions has never been done before, according to Bell Mobility, and Michelis admitted that “the need to rely on satellite transmission for long distance and Internet access in Nunavut may have some impact on transmission speeds, as it does with any form of communication.”