Nunavik-Nunavut mobile firm moves from CDMA to GSM

Lynx customers in Nunavut and Nunavik should prepare to replace their mobile phones after the company completes a switch from the CDMA standard to the GSM standard for wireless devices. (LYNX FACEBOOK IMAGE)

If you’re a Lynx Mobility customer in Nunavut, northern Quebec or Labrador, get ready to replace your mobile device, Lynx said Nov. 14 in a news release.

The small wireless provider offers mobile service in Cape Dorset, Sanikiluaq, Gjoa Haven, Arctic Bay, Coral Harbour, and Repulse Bay in Nunavut and seven communities in northern Quebec: Whapmagoostui, Inukjuak, Salluit, Schefferville, Kuujjuaq, Puvirnituq and Kawawachikamach.

They also provide a mobile service in Nain, Labrador.

Lynx offers customers a pay-as-you-go service that uses prepaid minutes and phone cards.

They announced this month that they’re switching from CDMA to GSM technology — which means their customers will have to replace their existing handsets, which won’t work on the new system.

“Existing CDMA phones currently in use will not be compatible with the GSM technology being introduced, and should be replaced by users,” Lynx said.

“In light of these changes we are advising customers to defer the purchases of new handsets until we make new GSM phones available.”

CDMA is the standard used by North American firms like Bell Mobility in Canada and Verizon in the U.S.

GSM, the default standard for the rest of the world, is used by firms like Rogers in Canada and AT&T in the U.S.

Lynx will start the change in December and complete the work in three to four months, the company said.

For customers, one of the biggest advantages with the GSM standard is the ability to remove and replace SIM cards — which contain the data needed to make a GSM cell phone work on a given network — on unlocked phones.

And when Lynx’s GSM standard rolls out, the company will offer a $20 discount to customers who buy new phones or pre-paid minutes, Lynx said.

“The new technology will also allow the company to offer affordable devices for customers that don’t have their own device and an affordable service for all customers on the network,” the press release said.

And customers who own unlocked GSM phones will be able to use them on the new Lynx network.

But the company offers no information about what handset brands will available through their new GSM service.

Lynx began life in 2008 as a partnership between a Montreal-based firm called Omniglobe Networks, which owned 20 per cent. An aboriginal firm called Naskapi Imuun, owned by the Naskapi of Kawawachikamach, owned the other 80 per cent.

In 2010, the company announced a partnership with a Makivik-owned subsidiary called Nunacell Inc. to offer mobile phone service in Kuujjuaq, Salluit, Inukjuak and Puvirnituq.

In 2011, Omniglobe filed for bankruptcy and went into receivership.

In January 2012, an undisclosed buyer bought Omniglobe’s assets for $1.35 million, says a document posted by the Montreal-based bankruptcy specialist RSM Richter.