Local rates go up, long distance rates stay put in Nunavut

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Customers in Nunavut can expect little savings when Northwestel slashes long-distance rates later this summer.

But they will start paying nearly 30 per cent more for basic local telephone service.

“The Nunavut rates are actually already lower than the long-distance rates that the rest of Northwestel customers pay,” phone company spokesperson Anne Grainger said.

The minimum cost of having a dial tone in the home will rise to $26.33 per month from $20.33, beginning Aug. 1.

Cost of a single-line business phone hookup will rise from $38.70 per month to $44.70 per month.

The rate hike, which applies to residential, single and multi-line business accounts, and well as mobile phone customers, was approved by the CRTC last year.

Last week, Northwestel announced cuts to long-distance rates for most customer-placed calls within its operating area, which includes Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and northern British Columbia.

There will be no rate decreases, however, for calls placed within Nunavut or from Nunavut to points outside the Northwestel operating area. Only those rates for calls placed to the Northwest Territories, the Yukon or northern B.C. will change, Grainger said.

The daytime rate for a call between Yellowknife and Ottawa, for instance, will fall from 68 cents per minute to 48 cents. Daytime calls between Iqaluit and Ottawa will remain unchanged at 36 cents per minute.

The new long-distance rates were approved by the CRTC last week, and stem from a 1997 decision by the regulator to open the North to competition in the northern long-distance telephone market.

The first phase of increases in local access rates came in August, 1998, with an initial hike of $4 per month.

The $10-per month increase in basic phone service since 1998 is intended to offset revenue losses that result from future competition for long-distance business.

A decision on the specific terms and conditions of long-distance competition in the Northwestel operating area is expected to be made by the CRTC in September.

In 1997 the CRTC opened the door alternate long-distance carriers, subject to rate rebalancing that would preserve Northwestel’s ability to continue as a full-service provider of last resort throughout its operating territory.

Under the CRTC model, alternate long-distance providers such as Call-Net Enterprises — better known as Sprint Canada — and Westel, will be given equal access to markets in Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Fort Nelson, beginning July 1, 2000.