Northwestel
Encyclopedia
Northwestel Inc. is the incumbent local exchange carrier
(ILEC) and long distance carrier in Northern Canada
. The company name is a portmanteau, sometimes spelled NorthwesTel, for Northwest Telecommunications.
Northwestel was established in 1979 by its owner, Canadian National Railway
s, spinning off the "northwest" operations of Canadian National Telecommunications (which is not to be confused with CNCP Telecommunications
, a joint venture that CP Telegraphs and CN Telegraphs formed). The Newfoundland
operation was, the same year, spun off as Terra Nova Tel
(TNT). TNT was later purchased by NewTel Enterprises
and merged with Newfoundland Telephone
in late 1988.
Northwestel was sold to Bell Canada Enterprises (parent of Bell Canada) on December 1, 1988. Since then, Northwestel has become a direct subsidiary of Bell Canada
, although still regulated (by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)) separately from Bell Canada, with its own method of regulation until 2007: rate of return. Northwestel, as of 2007, is regulated more closely like all other companies in Canada
— price regulation and a split rate base — that is appropriate to the highly competitive environment in which they operate; Northwestel does not have a split rate base, however.
The company's original service territory was the entire Yukon
, plus parts of northern British Columbia
, and the western portion of the Northwest Territories
, including the Kitikmeot
communities of Pelly Bay (now Kugaaruk
), Spence Bay (Taloyoak
) and Gjoa Haven
. On July 1, 1992, the service territory of Bell Canada in the NWT was purchased by Northwestel, bringing the entire north under a single company.
Though technically regarded as an "independent company" through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (it was not a member of the Trans-Canada Telephone System or Telecom Canada), the last of seven actual independent companies within Northwestel's operating area were acquired by the company's predecessor CNT in 1964.
A CRTC order in 2003 transferred a small section of Alberta
, that had no telephone service, to Northwestel's operating area, as it could better serve the location from Fort Smith
than could Telus
due to isolation and network cost. Fort Fitzgerald residents initiated the process by appealing to the CRTC; service was installed at the end of 2005, delayed as the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
demanded ongoing access payments for installing the telephone lines, initially at a rate far in excess of the revenue that would be generated by a very small number of customers.
The 2003 order had the effect of eliminating an anomaly - Northwestel already had some customers in Alberta adjacent to Fort Smith, though not as far from Fort Smith as Fort Fitzgerald.
of 1898. However, this system was not linked into the North American phone network until the 1960s, barring any shortwave
radio links. This independent company, Yukon Telephone Syndicate, was purchased by CNT from Northern Light Power and Coal Company of England in 1962 and a dial telephone system was installed later in the 1960s to replace the 1901 magneto board. Robert W. Service
was one of the few Dawson residents able to afford telephone service during his residence in Dawson prior to World War I
.
At least one other independent company was established in Whitehorse
and was able to trace its service back to 1900. The Mayo Utilities Company was established in 1920, providing telephone, electricity and water in Mayo
and Elsa
/Keno City
. It was sold in 1942, and the owner sold off the electric and water operations and joined it with the Whitehorse company to form the Yukon Telephone Company.
The Royal Canadian Corps of Signals
established long distance shortwave communications stations in the north prior to World War II
.
erected the first terrestrial long distance system in the form of a pole line along the Alaska Highway
. Components normally taking months to build were assembled in weeks.
Although limited in capacity, it served after the war as the backbone long distance network that linked Whitehorse with the south, and provided ringdown
magneto phones to highway establishments.
This US Army system was turned over, April 1, 1946, to the Royal Canadian Air Force
(RCAF). In 1948, the RCAF turned it over to the federal Department of Transport
(DOT), which contracted the operation to Canadian National Telegraphs (CNT).
in the late 1950s. These systems were all purchased by CNT during the 1961-1964 period.
The independent Yellowknife Telephone Company, its formation begun in the spring of 1947 with a buy-in of $50 per share, has its own colourful history. In order to obtain the franchise, they needed to have 100 telephones operating by December 31 at midnight, but by early December had only 15 connected. They rushed by putting five or six phones in some homes. The inspector attempted to call 100 numbers and received 100 answers, although only a quarter were functioning properly. Service was problematic, with many unhappy customers, and up to ten people were partied on a line. By 1958, the Yellowknife company's service improved, with 700 phones hooked up.
During the 1950s, one of the major shareholders in Yellowknife, Jim Mason, learned that there were second-hand cables for sale from a Stewart, BC
, company. The owner had died and his brother, the executor, not knowing much about the company, accepted an offer of $1,000 for the cables, to be shipped by the executor. The cables arrived at a desperate time, long after they were expected, allowing an upgrade of the lines, and turned out to be worth $35,000.
An opportunity to acquire federal government
telephone services in the Dawson Creek-Fort St. John
, BC, area was not acted on, and on 1 July 1956, those areas, through which CNT later ran a microwave line, became owned by the North-west Telephone Company, which was associated with the B.C. Telephone Company.
In October 1958, CNT purchased the Whitehorse-based Yukon Telephone Company, and also purchased the DOT system outright. From there, it began to develop a complete public telephone exchange service in the Yukon.
Whitehorse converted from partial dial to full dial service on October 31, 1960. After this date, local communities' ring-down phones were replaced with local exchange service, using surplus central office switches that could be acquired at a relatively low cost. Most of these switches were Ericsson
Rurax switches that during the late 1970s were modified to enable direct dialing of long distance calls, though without automatic number identification
. The Ruraxes were mostly replaced in the mid-1980s with modern solid-state digital switches, though the last Rurax remained in service in Swift River until 1987.
The three local independent companies in the NWT were connected to the CN long distance network by 1961, and additional locations in 1962 as CN extended its telephone service mandate into the vast NWT (by this time, Bell Canada was operating in Frobisher Bay in the east). In July 1961, CN purchased the Hay River Telephone Company; on 31 December 1963, CN purchased the Yellowknife Telephone Company (at $250 per share), and in May 1964, CN purchased the exchange in Fort Smith.
By 1975, the company was known as Canadian National Telecommunications.
The original pole line along the Alaska Highway was overbuilt by a modern analog microwave
line that was completed in 1962. Like much of the northern long distance infrastructure, a long-term government contract was required to make the cost affordable, in this case, United States
military need for a reliable link to its Alaska
radar stations. The CNT link joined Alascom
microwave facilities with Alberta Government Telephones (now Telus) microwave facilities. Other US government contracts with CNT resulted in tropospheric
scatterwave facilities being installed to link up Distant Early Warning Line
sites, along a line stretching from Barrow, Alaska to the east side of Greenland
, with a scatterwave antenna in Hay River, NWT. These troposcatter facilities were also later used to carry civilian long distance circuits until satellite facilities were implemented in the 1980s.
The microwave system on the Alaska Highway was inaugurated with a phone call from Prime Minister
John Diefenbaker
, visiting Whitehorse, to President
John F. Kennedy
in Washington, D.C.
. Later that year, the line's worth was proven in the Cuban Missile Crisis
. With the possibility of a nuclear strike by the USSR
, the phone company hurriedly dispatched radio technicians to each site, often on a lonely mountaintop, to be ready to restore service in case of a failure. This route was upgraded to modern digital microwave technology in the early 1990s.
Direct distance dialing
(DDD) was first introduced in 1972, just 21 years after its initial introduction in Englewood, New Jersey
, and 14 years after introduction to Canada at Toronto
and Montreal
. DDD became available on all but a handful of exchanges by the spring of 1980.
The pole line remained until the early 1980s, being used for multi-party line
service for rural telephone customers, who are now served by point-to-point radio connections for their telephone service. Removal of the wires provoked a small rural protest from people who had hooked their radio sets to the wire to pick up Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) radio signals that inadvertently were carried along the wires; a Northwestel spokesperson explained in a letter to the editor that they could not knowingly continue to provide a service they were not licensed to provide.
The company's corporate headquarters were transferred from Edmonton
to Whitehorse in 1980. Operations have been diversified with Yellowknife being another prime centre for the company.
Microwave installations similar to the Alaska Highway route and others in southern Canada replaced outdated or overcrowded pole-line systems on routes paralleling the Yukon's Klondike Highway
, and highways in the Northwest Territories, as well as a mammoth pole-line along the Mackenzie River
to Inuvik
that was only in service from 1968 to 1973. Satellite
relays replaced Tropospheric scatterwave systems to DEW-line communities such as Cambridge Bay
and Spence Bay, improving signal quality immensely.
Manual Mobile Telephone Service
, using VHF
frequencies, was introduced by the company along all major highways, the Mackenzie River valley and additional off-road regions, during the 1960-1990 period.
Further improvements in the 1990s eliminated "double-hop" relays between two satellite-served communities, halving the transmission time for a satellite as much as 26000 mi (41,842.8 km) away over the equator. Nevertheless, bad atmosphere conditions can still skip satellite signals out of the atmosphere for far-north points where the antenna points horizontally across the ground. (The effect is similar when looking at an oar in the water, and the oar appears bent.)
Until the 1980s, Northwestel's current operating area (including the Bell Canada area it acquired in 1992) was characterized by north-south communications and transportation links. Airline
s flew mainly north-south. Highways such as the Alaska Highway and the Mackenzie Highway
were routed north-south. Telecommunication lines and tropo links routed north-south, following the natural transportation corridors.
As a result, the area's low requirements were met by long distance switching as part of southern area codes - 403
in the west and 819
in the east. The Yukon was also covered by 403, not 604, since its lines were handled, prior to Direct Distance Dialing, by operators in Edmonton, Alberta.
The northern British Columbia locations, plus Fort Liard, NT
until October 1981, were served by area code 604 so that there would be uniformity of dialing codes within that province. Lower Post, BC
, linked with the Watson Lake, YT
exchange, was covered by 403 prior to 1979.
In 1997, the single area code 867
was introduced to replace 403 and 819, although the British Columbia locations, by now serviced by 250
, remained on 250. The inauguration of 867 signaled a truly trans-northern communications network that was finally capable of routing calls across the north without having to route through the territories of southern telephone companies.
A Service Improvement Plan
(SIP), similar to ones implemented by other Canadian telephone companies, extended basic levels of service to more of the north during the four years starting in 2001.
In August 2009, Northwestel completed the last leg of fibre from Whitehorse to the south. Until this time, a 320km long section between Fort Nelson, BC, and Mould Creek (near Liard Hot Springs), telecommunications passing through the area were carried over microwave radio. The completion of the fibre link in this area also will allow Northwestel to provide internet service to the communities of Muncho Lake, BC and Toad River, BC. Since the completion of fibre fully to Whitehorse, internet package speeds and transfer caps in Whitehorse have both been increased significantly.
Unlike southern phone companies, Northwestel occasionally must decommission exchanges and facilities in previously active communities that are ceasing to exist. In several cases, a large investment in wiring distribution and exchange infrastructure must be abandoned or removed, and may become surplus (no longer producing revenue to cover its acquisition and installation cost), not being required elsewhere.
Past communities served by Northwestel that have vanished include:
Other communities have been added and then deleted in a short space of years: McDame Lake, BC; Ketza River, Yukon. Elsa survives as a rate centre only because it was eclipsed by relatively stable Keno, which is served by the same exchange.
in numerous communities across the north, the timing was poor as DTH satellite
services became available; Northwestel Cable was unable to subscribe enough customers to make systems viable except in Norman Wells
; the company also purchased the Mackenzie Media cable system in Yellowknife. In 2005, Northwestel Cable purchased the Fort Nelson, British Columbia
system and upgraded it for digital and internet. In August 2006, the system in High Level, Alberta
was also purchased and is to be upgraded for digital cable
and internet
. In September 2007, Northwestel Cable took ownership of the WHTV Cablevision system in Whitehorse, and again, conducted upgrades.
Northwestel introduced a form of cellular telephony
in 1987 with the Aurora (Automated Roving Radio) system (400 MHz
band) developed by Novatel and widely used in Alberta. It was available in limited areas, and although intended to replace most of the VHF manual mobile telephone service, the widespread deployment of cellular service (800 MHz band) across southern Canada rendered the Aurora system obsolete, despite Aurora's superior geographic reach. The Aurora system was manufacturer discontinued, and, not being Y2K compatible
, was discontinued late in 1999.
800 MHz cellular technology was introduced in 1993, though with far less availability than Aurora in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. The cellular operations were, soon after, spun off as Northwestel Mobility Inc. (NMI Mobility). In 2003, NMI Mobility was sold to Bell Mobility
, leaving Northwestel as strictly landline and VHF manual mobile provider. However, it appears to have been since re-acquired by Northwestel.
Northwestel is now in a joint venture with the Dakwakada Development Corporation (an arm of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
) in Latitude Wireless deployment of cellular in 17 to 19 Yukon communities (with local number blocks in Dawson, Haines Junction, Old Crow and Watson Lake). Latitude Wireless service is also available in eight communities in the Northwest Territories and six in Nunavut
, and roaming is available between the Latitude and Bell Mobility networks.
As an example of the low population density, the area of Kluane National Park and Reserve
in the southwest Yukon, which has an adjacent population of less than 1,100, is 22013 km² (8,499.3 sq mi). The Golden Horseshoe
of Ontario
, the area around Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario
, is 31562 km² (12,186.2 sq mi), has some 8.1 million people; the densest portion of 22000 km² (8,494.2 sq mi) of the Golden Horseshoe likely has over 5 million people.
Northwestel's operating area is one third of Canada's land mass, but only 1/300th of Canada's population. Other phone companies serve much smaller territories and have cities of hundreds of thousands of people. Telus and Bell Canada have cities and urban regions in excess of two million population.
An example of extraordinary maintenance costs occurred in the late 1990s when wind blew the satellite dish at Grise Fiord off its base and wrecked it, cutting off communications for a community of just a few hundred people. A replacement dish, and installation crew, had to be sent in by air freight charter, and assembled on site. This sort of cost must be covered as "monopoly local", supported by carrier access tariff fees, or in the resale prices charged to resellers of local service.
While not necessarily a cost factor, an adverse effect of the high latitude is the refraction of radio signals by the atmosphere. At Grise Fiord, the satellite antenna faces horizontally south at the satellite which is located over the equator. The signal from the satellite strikes the atmosphere at such a flat angle that adverse conditions can deflect the signal away from the straight-line required to reach the antenna. The effect is similar to how an oar appears bent at the surface of the water.
As a result of these factors, long distance competition arrived some nine years later than in the rest of Canada, and local competition was still not allowed through 2006. In addition, the CRTC recognized the need for external supplementary funding to sustain the company with competition, since it was viewed as essential that Northwestel remain in business to provide basic phone service to all communities it now served.
The external subsidy allows the company to offer a long distance plan, to all communities in its operating area, with a rate of 10 cents per minute for calling within Canada during off-peak hours. Without the subsidy, this low rate could not be offered. The Carrier Access Tariff (CAT) rate was also subsidized at just 7 cents per minute from 2001 to early 2007, and a lower CAT rate would have required even greater subsidy; other Canadian companies can offer lower CAT rates without subsidization. In addition, the "toll connecting trunks" (portions of the long distance networks that connect local exchanges to the long distance exchanges) are unusually long, and are regarded as part of monopoly local, requiring external subsidy to sustain. Circuit charges are also priced well above cost in order to cross-subsidize non-profitable services such as monopoly local.
Considering the difficulties of the operating area, Northwestel provides a fairly modern telecommunications network, including a basic level of such features as Call waiting
, dial-up Internet, Call Number Display
in 58 exchanges (62 communities & localities), and, in the largest centres which are still smaller than Bell Canada's fair-sized towns, video conference services. More advanced features, such as Name Display, are not available, and long distance transmission of Call Number Display is limited to just 14 communities. They also provide cable services, as "TheEdge", with television and DSL
Internet in some communities, many of them with government assistance. As NetKaster they also provide Two-way
Satellite Internet access
to Alberta and parts of the NWT and Nunavut and planned expansion in British Columbia, Saskatchewan
, Manitoba
and Yukon.
The CRTC initiated a proceeding on January 17, 2006 (Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2006-1) to review the regulatory framework for Northwestel, with a decision for a new framework issued in 2007 to go within 60 days. The CRTC examined moving Northwestel from rate-of-return regulation to price regulation, or a transitional regime. It also examined the possibility of local service competition (and under what conditions), possible split of rate base between competitive and utility, further SIP proposals, and status of long distance competition and the setting of the CAT rate.
The strongest opposition to the proposal by Northwestel came from Telus. The proposal envisioned a substantial increase in supplemental funding in order to shift from an implicit subsidy (circuit charges far above cost) to an explicit subsidy (charges closer to parity with elsewhere in Canada); there would also have been a major cut in the 7 cent-per-minute CAT rate to a new switch connect rate lower than one cent per minute, again replacing an implicit subsidy with an explicit subsidy through supplemental funding. Consumer groups expressed concern about the price-cap regime, suggesting continued regulation. Various groups expressed concern about the unknown long distance rate reductions, as for competitive reasons, neither Northwestel nor the CRTC could disclose the specifics.
The CRTC issued its decision (Telecom Decision 2007-5) on February 2, 2007, following an interim order issued on December 6, 2006 that allowed the first raise in basic network service rates since 2001 (residence customers face an increase of $2.00, equal to 1.11 percent per year over six years). The approved switch connect rate will be $0.0415 per minute per end; local service resale was approved; Toll Free
remains regulated; other toll services will now be forborne from regulation; a new SIP program to replace outdated and Industry Canada
-non compliant transmission networks was not approved.
The company announced its new long distance plans on 21 March 2007, after adjusting its original plans to reflect the CRTC-approved rates and regime. The timing of the CRTC decision conflicted with the company's temporary loss of staff for volunteer activity at the Canada Winter Games
.
Incumbent local exchange carrier
An ILEC, short for incumbent local exchange carrier, is a local telephone company in the United States that was in existence at the time of the breakup of AT&T into the Regional Bell Operating Companies , also known as the "Baby Bells." The ILEC is the former Bell System or Independent Telephone...
(ILEC) and long distance carrier in Northern Canada
Northern Canada
Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut...
. The company name is a portmanteau, sometimes spelled NorthwesTel, for Northwest Telecommunications.
Modern corporate history
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
s, spinning off the "northwest" operations of Canadian National Telecommunications (which is not to be confused with CNCP Telecommunications
CNCP Telecommunications
CNCP Telecommunications was an electrical telegraph operator and later as a telecom company...
, a joint venture that CP Telegraphs and CN Telegraphs formed). The Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
operation was, the same year, spun off as Terra Nova Tel
Terra Nova Tel
Terra Nova Tel was a telephone company providing service on the island of Newfoundland from 1949 to 1988. It was a subsidiary of Canadian National Railways through Canadian National Telecommunications....
(TNT). TNT was later purchased by NewTel Enterprises
NewTel Enterprises
NewTel Enterprises was the holding company that owned NewTel Communications, a telephone service provider in Newfoundland and Labrador.-External links:*...
and merged with Newfoundland Telephone
NewTel Communications
NewTel Communications was a telephone, internet and cellular service provider in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Originally, as the Avalon Telephone Company, it served the Avalon Peninsula; it became the Newfoundland Telephone Company, also serving southwestern Newfoundland ,...
in late 1988.
Northwestel was sold to Bell Canada Enterprises (parent of Bell Canada) on December 1, 1988. Since then, Northwestel has become a direct subsidiary of Bell Canada
Bell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
, although still regulated (by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)) separately from Bell Canada, with its own method of regulation until 2007: rate of return. Northwestel, as of 2007, is regulated more closely like all other companies in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
— price regulation and a split rate base — that is appropriate to the highly competitive environment in which they operate; Northwestel does not have a split rate base, however.
The company's original service territory was the entire Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
, plus parts of northern British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, and the western portion of the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
, including the Kitikmeot
Kitikmeot Region, Northwest Territories
The Kitikmeot Region was part of the Northwest Territories until division in April 1999 when most of the region became part of Nunavut. It consisted of Victoria Island with the adjacent part of the mainland as far as the Boothia Peninsula, together with King William Island and the southern portion...
communities of Pelly Bay (now Kugaaruk
Kugaaruk, Nunavut
-Culture:The historical inhabitants were Arviligjuarmiut. Kugaaruk is a traditional "Central Inuit" community. Until 1968, the people followed a nomadic lifestyle. The population is approximately 97% Inuit and most people self-identify as Netsilik Inuit. The residents blend a land based lifestyle...
), Spence Bay (Taloyoak
Taloyoak, Nunavut
Taloyoak or Talurjuaq is located on the Boothia Peninsula, Kitikmeot, in Canada's Nunavut Territory. The community is served only by air and by annual supply sealift. Taloyoak may mean "large blind", referring to a stone caribou blind or a screen used for caribou hunting...
) and Gjoa Haven
Gjoa Haven, Nunavut
Gjoa Haven is a hamlet in Nunavut, above the Arctic Circle, located in the Kitikmeot Region, northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. It is the only settlement on King William Island...
. On July 1, 1992, the service territory of Bell Canada in the NWT was purchased by Northwestel, bringing the entire north under a single company.
Though technically regarded as an "independent company" through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (it was not a member of the Trans-Canada Telephone System or Telecom Canada), the last of seven actual independent companies within Northwestel's operating area were acquired by the company's predecessor CNT in 1964.
A CRTC order in 2003 transferred a small section of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, that had no telephone service, to Northwestel's operating area, as it could better serve the location from Fort Smith
Fort Smith, Northwest Territories
Fort Smith is a town in the South Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is located in the southeastern portion of the Northwest Territories, on the Slave River and adjacent to the NWT/Alberta border.-History:Fort Smith's history began because of the Slave River and the vital link...
than could Telus
TELUS
Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver...
due to isolation and network cost. Fort Fitzgerald residents initiated the process by appealing to the CRTC; service was installed at the end of 2005, delayed as the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
Wood Buffalo, Alberta
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is a specialized municipality located in northeastern Alberta. Formed as a result of the amalgamation of the City of Fort McMurray and Improvement District No. 143 on April 1, 1995, it is the second largest municipality in Alberta by area...
demanded ongoing access payments for installing the telephone lines, initially at a rate far in excess of the revenue that would be generated by a very small number of customers.
The 2003 order had the effect of eliminating an anomaly - Northwestel already had some customers in Alberta adjacent to Fort Smith, though not as far from Fort Smith as Fort Fitzgerald.
Pre-World War II
The earliest telephone service in Northwestel's present-day operating territory was in Dawson City, established during the Klondike Gold RushKlondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
of 1898. However, this system was not linked into the North American phone network until the 1960s, barring any shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
radio links. This independent company, Yukon Telephone Syndicate, was purchased by CNT from Northern Light Power and Coal Company of England in 1962 and a dial telephone system was installed later in the 1960s to replace the 1901 magneto board. Robert W. Service
Robert W. Service
Robert William Service was a poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon".Service is best known for his poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee", from his first book, Songs of a Sourdough...
was one of the few Dawson residents able to afford telephone service during his residence in Dawson prior to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
At least one other independent company was established in Whitehorse
Whitehorse, Yukon
Whitehorse is Yukon's capital and largest city . It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1476 on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas occupy both shores of the Yukon River, which originates in British Columbia and meets the Bering Sea in...
and was able to trace its service back to 1900. The Mayo Utilities Company was established in 1920, providing telephone, electricity and water in Mayo
Mayo, Yukon
Mayo is a village in the Yukon, Canada, along the Silver Trail and the Stewart River. The population was 248 in 2006. It is also the home of the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun, whose primary language is Northern Tutchone. Nacho Nyak Dun translates into "big river people". It is serviced by Mayo...
and Elsa
Elsa, Yukon
Elsa is a privately owned mining town based on silver, lead, and zinc in Yukon, Canada. It is located between the valley of the Stewart River to the south and the Mackenzie Mountains to the north. It is to the north of Whitehorse, and east of the Alaskan border...
/Keno City
Keno City, Yukon
Keno City is a small community in the Yukon at the end of the Silver Trail highway. Population was about 20 in 2001. Keno City was the site of a former silver-lead mining area proximal to Keno Hill. Keno City is 13 kilometres away from the Elsa, Yukon, which is owned by Alexco Resource Corp who...
. It was sold in 1942, and the owner sold off the electric and water operations and joined it with the Whitehorse company to form the Yukon Telephone Company.
The Royal Canadian Corps of Signals
Royal Canadian Corps of Signals
The Royal Canadian Corps of Signals was a corps of the Canadian Army. Major Wallace Bruce Matthews Carruthers established the corps in 1903, making it the first independent Signal Corps in the British Empire...
established long distance shortwave communications stations in the north prior to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
World War II
In 1942, the United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
erected the first terrestrial long distance system in the form of a pole line along the Alaska Highway
Alaska Highway
The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II for the purpose of connecting the contiguous U.S. to Alaska through Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon...
. Components normally taking months to build were assembled in weeks.
Although limited in capacity, it served after the war as the backbone long distance network that linked Whitehorse with the south, and provided ringdown
Ringdown
-Operator signaling:In telephony, ringdown is a method of signaling an operator in which telephone ringing current is sent over the line to operate a lamp or cause the operation of a self-locking relay known as a drop...
magneto phones to highway establishments.
This US Army system was turned over, April 1, 1946, to the Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
The history of the Royal Canadian Air Force begins in 1920, when the air force was created as the Canadian Air Force . In 1924 the CAF was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force and granted royal sanction by King George V. The RCAF existed as an independent service until 1968...
(RCAF). In 1948, the RCAF turned it over to the federal Department of Transport
Transport Canada
Transport Canada is the department within the government of Canada which is responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities portfolio...
(DOT), which contracted the operation to Canadian National Telegraphs (CNT).
Post-war development
Other independent companies were established in Yellowknife in 1947, Fort Smith, and Hay RiverHay River, Northwest Territories
Hay River , known as "the Hub of the North," is a town in the Northwest Territories, Canada, located on the south shore of Great Slave Lake, at the mouth of the Hay River. The town is separated into two sections, a new town and an old town with the Hay River Airport between them...
in the late 1950s. These systems were all purchased by CNT during the 1961-1964 period.
The independent Yellowknife Telephone Company, its formation begun in the spring of 1947 with a buy-in of $50 per share, has its own colourful history. In order to obtain the franchise, they needed to have 100 telephones operating by December 31 at midnight, but by early December had only 15 connected. They rushed by putting five or six phones in some homes. The inspector attempted to call 100 numbers and received 100 answers, although only a quarter were functioning properly. Service was problematic, with many unhappy customers, and up to ten people were partied on a line. By 1958, the Yellowknife company's service improved, with 700 phones hooked up.
During the 1950s, one of the major shareholders in Yellowknife, Jim Mason, learned that there were second-hand cables for sale from a Stewart, BC
Stewart, British Columbia
Stewart is a small town, incorporated as a district municipality at the head of the Portland Canal in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. In 2006, its population was about 496.-History:...
, company. The owner had died and his brother, the executor, not knowing much about the company, accepted an offer of $1,000 for the cables, to be shipped by the executor. The cables arrived at a desperate time, long after they were expected, allowing an upgrade of the lines, and turned out to be worth $35,000.
An opportunity to acquire federal government
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
telephone services in the Dawson Creek-Fort St. John
Fort St. John, British Columbia
The City of Fort St. John is a city in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Peace River Regional District, the city covers an area of about 22 km² with 22,000 residents . Located at Mile 47, it is one of the largest cities along the Alaska Highway. Originally...
, BC, area was not acted on, and on 1 July 1956, those areas, through which CNT later ran a microwave line, became owned by the North-west Telephone Company, which was associated with the B.C. Telephone Company.
In October 1958, CNT purchased the Whitehorse-based Yukon Telephone Company, and also purchased the DOT system outright. From there, it began to develop a complete public telephone exchange service in the Yukon.
Whitehorse converted from partial dial to full dial service on October 31, 1960. After this date, local communities' ring-down phones were replaced with local exchange service, using surplus central office switches that could be acquired at a relatively low cost. Most of these switches were Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
Rurax switches that during the late 1970s were modified to enable direct dialing of long distance calls, though without automatic number identification
Automatic number identification
Automatic number identification is a feature of telephony intelligent network services that permits subscribers to display or capture the billing telephone number of a calling party. In the United States it is part of Inward Wide Area Telephone Service . ANI service was created by AT&T for...
. The Ruraxes were mostly replaced in the mid-1980s with modern solid-state digital switches, though the last Rurax remained in service in Swift River until 1987.
The three local independent companies in the NWT were connected to the CN long distance network by 1961, and additional locations in 1962 as CN extended its telephone service mandate into the vast NWT (by this time, Bell Canada was operating in Frobisher Bay in the east). In July 1961, CN purchased the Hay River Telephone Company; on 31 December 1963, CN purchased the Yellowknife Telephone Company (at $250 per share), and in May 1964, CN purchased the exchange in Fort Smith.
| Name | Communities served | Acquired |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Canadian Corps of Signals | various Yukon locations | acq by D.O.T. in 1948 |
| Federal Department of Transport (D.O.T.) | Alaska Highway corridor, parts of Whitehorse | October 1958 |
| Yukon Telephone Company | Whitehorse, Mayo | October 1958 |
| Yukon Telephone Syndicate | Dawson City | 1962 |
| Hay River Telephone Company | Hay River | July 1961 |
| Yellowknife Telephone Company | Yellowknife | 31 Dec 1963 |
| unknown | Fort Smith and adjacent areas of Alberta | May 1964 |
By 1975, the company was known as Canadian National Telecommunications.
The original pole line along the Alaska Highway was overbuilt by a modern analog microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
line that was completed in 1962. Like much of the northern long distance infrastructure, a long-term government contract was required to make the cost affordable, in this case, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military need for a reliable link to its Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
radar stations. The CNT link joined Alascom
AT&T Alascom
Alascom, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Alascom is an Alaskan telecommunications company; specifically, an interexchange carrier . AT&T Alascom is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. AT&T Alascom, previously known as Alascom and many other names, was the first long-distance telephone company in Alaska...
microwave facilities with Alberta Government Telephones (now Telus) microwave facilities. Other US government contracts with CNT resulted in tropospheric
Troposphere
The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere. It contains approximately 80% of the atmosphere's mass and 99% of its water vapor and aerosols....
scatterwave facilities being installed to link up Distant Early Warning Line
Distant Early Warning Line
The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland...
sites, along a line stretching from Barrow, Alaska to the east side of Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, with a scatterwave antenna in Hay River, NWT. These troposcatter facilities were also later used to carry civilian long distance circuits until satellite facilities were implemented in the 1980s.
The microwave system on the Alaska Highway was inaugurated with a phone call from Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
, visiting Whitehorse, to President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Later that year, the line's worth was proven in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
. With the possibility of a nuclear strike by the USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the phone company hurriedly dispatched radio technicians to each site, often on a lonely mountaintop, to be ready to restore service in case of a failure. This route was upgraded to modern digital microwave technology in the early 1990s.
Direct distance dialing
Direct distance dialing
Direct distance dialing or direct dial is a telecommunications term for a network-provided service feature in which a call originator may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. DDD requires more digits in the number dialed than are required for calling...
(DDD) was first introduced in 1972, just 21 years after its initial introduction in Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...
, and 14 years after introduction to Canada at Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. DDD became available on all but a handful of exchanges by the spring of 1980.
The pole line remained until the early 1980s, being used for multi-party line
Party line (telephony)
In twentieth-century telephone systems, a party line is an arrangement in which two or more customers are connected directly to the same local loop. Prior to World War II in the United States, party lines were the primary way residential subscribers acquired local telephone service...
service for rural telephone customers, who are now served by point-to-point radio connections for their telephone service. Removal of the wires provoked a small rural protest from people who had hooked their radio sets to the wire to pick up Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
(CBC) radio signals that inadvertently were carried along the wires; a Northwestel spokesperson explained in a letter to the editor that they could not knowingly continue to provide a service they were not licensed to provide.
The company's corporate headquarters were transferred from Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
to Whitehorse in 1980. Operations have been diversified with Yellowknife being another prime centre for the company.
Modernization
CN inherited a mixture of switching technologies, some dial exchanges (Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith), some manual exchanges (Dawson City). Most settlements had no phone service or only one or two lines from a larger centre. Dial telephone service was ubiquitous by the end of the 1960s wherever a local exchange was established.Microwave installations similar to the Alaska Highway route and others in southern Canada replaced outdated or overcrowded pole-line systems on routes paralleling the Yukon's Klondike Highway
Klondike Highway
The Klondike Highway links the Alaskan coastal town of Skagway to Yukon's Dawson City and its route somewhat parallels that used by prospectors in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush....
, and highways in the Northwest Territories, as well as a mammoth pole-line along the Mackenzie River
Mackenzie River
The Mackenzie River is the largest river system in Canada. It flows through a vast, isolated region of forest and tundra entirely within the country's Northwest Territories, although its many tributaries reach into four other Canadian provinces and territories...
to Inuvik
Inuvik, Northwest Territories
Inuvik is a town in the Northwest Territories of Canada and is the administrative centre for the Inuvik Region.The population as of the 2006 Census was 3,484, but the two previous census counts show wide fluctuations due to economic conditions: 2,894 in 2001 and 3,296 in 1996...
that was only in service from 1968 to 1973. Satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
relays replaced Tropospheric scatterwave systems to DEW-line communities such as Cambridge Bay
Cambridge Bay, Nunavut
Cambridge Bay, named for Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, is a hamlet located in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada...
and Spence Bay, improving signal quality immensely.
Manual Mobile Telephone Service
Mobile Telephone Service
The Mobile Telephone Service is a pre-cellular VHF radio system that links to the Public Switched Telephone Network . MTS was the radiotelephone equivalent of land dial phone service. , only rural and wilderness areas were still using the system....
, using VHF
Very high frequency
Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency...
frequencies, was introduced by the company along all major highways, the Mackenzie River valley and additional off-road regions, during the 1960-1990 period.
Further improvements in the 1990s eliminated "double-hop" relays between two satellite-served communities, halving the transmission time for a satellite as much as 26000 mi (41,842.8 km) away over the equator. Nevertheless, bad atmosphere conditions can still skip satellite signals out of the atmosphere for far-north points where the antenna points horizontally across the ground. (The effect is similar when looking at an oar in the water, and the oar appears bent.)
Until the 1980s, Northwestel's current operating area (including the Bell Canada area it acquired in 1992) was characterized by north-south communications and transportation links. Airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
s flew mainly north-south. Highways such as the Alaska Highway and the Mackenzie Highway
Mackenzie Highway
The Mackenzie Highway is a Canadian highway in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. It begins as Alberta Highway 2 at Mile Zero in Grimshaw, Alberta...
were routed north-south. Telecommunication lines and tropo links routed north-south, following the natural transportation corridors.
As a result, the area's low requirements were met by long distance switching as part of southern area codes - 403
Area code 403
Area code 403 is a telephone area code in the Canadian province of Alberta, encompassing the southern half of the province, including the Calgary area...
in the west and 819
Area code 819
Area code 819 is an area code for central and western Quebec, Canada, including the Quebec portion of the National Capital Region, and the entire Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay coastlines of Quebec....
in the east. The Yukon was also covered by 403, not 604, since its lines were handled, prior to Direct Distance Dialing, by operators in Edmonton, Alberta.
The northern British Columbia locations, plus Fort Liard, NT
Fort Liard, Northwest Territories
Fort Liard is a hamlet in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is located 37 km north of the British Columbia border...
until October 1981, were served by area code 604 so that there would be uniformity of dialing codes within that province. Lower Post, BC
Lower Post, British Columbia
Lower Post is an aboriginal community in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located on Highway 97, the Alaska Highway, approximately 15 miles southeast of Watson Lake, Yukon. Its historical mile designation is Mile 620...
, linked with the Watson Lake, YT
Watson Lake, Yukon
Watson Lake is a town at historical mile 635 on the Alaska Highway in the southeastern Yukon close to the British Columbia border. Population in December 2004 was 1,547 ....
exchange, was covered by 403 prior to 1979.
In 1997, the single area code 867
Area code 867
Area code 867 is the area code for the three Canadian territories in the Arctic far north.It was created on October 21, 1997, from portions of two existing Canadian area codes . The digits were chosen to promote the theme "TOP of the world", as TOP spells 867 on a North American dial. It has the...
was introduced to replace 403 and 819, although the British Columbia locations, by now serviced by 250
Area code 250
Area code 250 is an area code for most of the Canadian province of British Columbia, including Vancouver Island. It was created on October 19, 1996 as a split of area code 604.The area code also serves the United States city of Hyder, Alaska....
, remained on 250. The inauguration of 867 signaled a truly trans-northern communications network that was finally capable of routing calls across the north without having to route through the territories of southern telephone companies.
A Service Improvement Plan
Service Improvement Plan
The Service Improvement Plan is a program mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to provide a defined level of basic telephone service to all Canadians, other than those so isolated that it is costly and impractical to reach...
(SIP), similar to ones implemented by other Canadian telephone companies, extended basic levels of service to more of the north during the four years starting in 2001.
In August 2009, Northwestel completed the last leg of fibre from Whitehorse to the south. Until this time, a 320km long section between Fort Nelson, BC, and Mould Creek (near Liard Hot Springs), telecommunications passing through the area were carried over microwave radio. The completion of the fibre link in this area also will allow Northwestel to provide internet service to the communities of Muncho Lake, BC and Toad River, BC. Since the completion of fibre fully to Whitehorse, internet package speeds and transfer caps in Whitehorse have both been increased significantly.
Unlike southern phone companies, Northwestel occasionally must decommission exchanges and facilities in previously active communities that are ceasing to exist. In several cases, a large investment in wiring distribution and exchange infrastructure must be abandoned or removed, and may become surplus (no longer producing revenue to cover its acquisition and installation cost), not being required elsewhere.
Past communities served by Northwestel that have vanished include:
- Clinton Creek, YukonClinton Creek, YukonClinton Creek was a company-owned and -operated asbestos mining town in the western Yukon near the confluence of the Yukon and Fortymile Rivers...
(1978) - Port Radium, Northwest TerritoriesPort Radium, Northwest TerritoriesPort Radium is a mining area on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. It included the settlement of Cameron Bay and the Eldorado Mine and Echo Bay Mine. The name Port Radium did not come into use until 1936 and at the time it was in reference to the region as a whole...
(1982) - Pine Point, Northwest TerritoriesPine Point, Northwest TerritoriesPine Point was the townsite built at the Pine Point Mine in the Northwest Territories, Canada, which was an open-pit lead and zinc mine.The first buildings were erected in 1952 during the original exploration and development campaign, and even before that a number of log cabins had been built in...
(1988) - Tungsten, Northwest TerritoriesTungsten, Northwest TerritoriesThe townsite of Tungsten is located at Cantung Mine in the Northwest Territories. It is accessible from Watson Lake, Yukon. Tungsten was built in 1961 and the tungsten mine went into operation in 1962 as a large open pit mine high in the Mackenzie Mountains. It originally consisted of several small...
(1990) - Bearskin Lake, BC (2004)
- Little Cornwallis IslandLittle Cornwallis IslandLittle Cornwallis Island is one of the Canadian Arctic islands in Nunavut, Canada. It is located at 75°30'N 96°30'W, between Cornwallis Island and Bathurst Island in McDougall Sound, and measures . It is uninhabited....
, Nunavut (2005) - Nanisivik, NunavutNanisivik, NunavutNanisivik was a company town which was built in 1975 to support the lead-zinc mining and mineral processing operations for the Nanisivik Mine, in production between 1976 and 2002...
, in early 2007, following a lengthy proceeding before the CRTC with opposition from contract workers at the mine site; - Cassiar, British ColumbiaCassiar, British ColumbiaCassiar is a ghost town in British Columbia, Canada. It was a small company-owned asbestos mining town located in the Cassiar Mountains of Northern British Columbia north of Dease Lake. After forty years of operation, starting in 1952, the mine was unexpectedly forced to close in 1992...
is a shadow of its former self and its remaining customers have been moved, by 2009, to the Good Hope LakeGood Hope Lake, British ColumbiaGood Hope Lake is a First Nations community in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located on Highway 37 not far south of the border with the Yukon and located east of the semi-abandoned mining town of Cassiar, British Columbia. As of the 2006 Census, there are 41 people living in Good Hope...
exchange (which once was a locality of Cassiar).
Other communities have been added and then deleted in a short space of years: McDame Lake, BC; Ketza River, Yukon. Elsa survives as a rate centre only because it was eclipsed by relatively stable Keno, which is served by the same exchange.
Subsidiary operations
Northwestel Cable is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwestel. Originally approved by the CRTC to provide cable televisionCable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
in numerous communities across the north, the timing was poor as DTH satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
services became available; Northwestel Cable was unable to subscribe enough customers to make systems viable except in Norman Wells
Norman Wells, Northwest Territories
Norman Wells is the regional centre for the Sahtu Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada...
; the company also purchased the Mackenzie Media cable system in Yellowknife. In 2005, Northwestel Cable purchased the Fort Nelson, British Columbia
Fort Nelson, British Columbia
Fort Nelson is a town of approximately 5000 residents in British Columbia's northeastern corner. It is the administrative centre of the newly formed Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, a first for BC. The majority of Fort Nelson's economic activities have historically been concentrated in the...
system and upgraded it for digital and internet. In August 2006, the system in High Level, Alberta
High Level, Alberta
- Demographics :According to the 2006 census, High Level had a:*population of 3,887 living in 1,519 dwellings, a 12.9% increase from 2001;*land area of ; and*population density of .- Economy :...
was also purchased and is to be upgraded for digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
and internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. In September 2007, Northwestel Cable took ownership of the WHTV Cablevision system in Whitehorse, and again, conducted upgrades.
Northwestel introduced a form of cellular telephony
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
in 1987 with the Aurora (Automated Roving Radio) system (400 MHz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
band) developed by Novatel and widely used in Alberta. It was available in limited areas, and although intended to replace most of the VHF manual mobile telephone service, the widespread deployment of cellular service (800 MHz band) across southern Canada rendered the Aurora system obsolete, despite Aurora's superior geographic reach. The Aurora system was manufacturer discontinued, and, not being Y2K compatible
Year 2000 problem
The Year 2000 problem was a problem for both digital and non-digital documentation and data storage situations which resulted from the practice of abbreviating a four-digit year to two digits.In computer programs, the practice of representing the year with two...
, was discontinued late in 1999.
800 MHz cellular technology was introduced in 1993, though with far less availability than Aurora in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. The cellular operations were, soon after, spun off as Northwestel Mobility Inc. (NMI Mobility). In 2003, NMI Mobility was sold to Bell Mobility
Bell Mobility
Bell Mobility is a CDMA and HSPA+ based wireless network and the division of Bell Canada which sells wireless services in Canada...
, leaving Northwestel as strictly landline and VHF manual mobile provider. However, it appears to have been since re-acquired by Northwestel.
Northwestel is now in a joint venture with the Dakwakada Development Corporation (an arm of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations is a First Nation in the Yukon Territory in Canada. Its original population centres were Champagne and Aishihik, but most of its citizens moved to Haines Junction to take advantage of services offered there such as schools. The First Nation government has...
) in Latitude Wireless deployment of cellular in 17 to 19 Yukon communities (with local number blocks in Dawson, Haines Junction, Old Crow and Watson Lake). Latitude Wireless service is also available in eight communities in the Northwest Territories and six in Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
, and roaming is available between the Latitude and Bell Mobility networks.
Unique service area
Northwestel's service area is uniquely recognized by the Canadian regulator, the CRTC as being entirely a high-cost serving area, characterized by:- the most severe climate (six to nine months of weather adverse for outdoor construction and maintenance, temperatures that make metal brittle, icing of towers and microwave dishes, wind damage)
- extremely low population density (long distances between communities, most of which are very small)
- the smallest communities to use expensive fixed assets such as exchanges (exchange itself, electricity, backup power, building heat and light)
- all-weather road access to only 55 of 93 communities & localities (air transport costs, overnight accommodations, risk of stranding due to weather), and
- terrestrial long distance networks to only 48 of 93 communities & localities - the rest are served by satellite (transponder lease costs, solar activity interference, adverse angle of signals on entering the atmosphere)
As an example of the low population density, the area of Kluane National Park and Reserve
Kluane National Park and Reserve
Kluane National Park and Reserve are two units of Canada's national park system, located in the extreme southwestern corner of Yukon Territory. Kluane National Park Reserve was established in 1972, covering 22,016 square kilometres....
in the southwest Yukon, which has an adjacent population of less than 1,100, is 22013 km² (8,499.3 sq mi). The Golden Horseshoe
Golden Horseshoe
The Golden Horseshoe is a densely populated and industrialized region centred around the Greater Toronto Area at the western end of Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Georgian Bay. Most of it is also part of the Quebec City...
of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, the area around Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, is 31562 km² (12,186.2 sq mi), has some 8.1 million people; the densest portion of 22000 km² (8,494.2 sq mi) of the Golden Horseshoe likely has over 5 million people.
Northwestel's operating area is one third of Canada's land mass, but only 1/300th of Canada's population. Other phone companies serve much smaller territories and have cities of hundreds of thousands of people. Telus and Bell Canada have cities and urban regions in excess of two million population.
An example of extraordinary maintenance costs occurred in the late 1990s when wind blew the satellite dish at Grise Fiord off its base and wrecked it, cutting off communications for a community of just a few hundred people. A replacement dish, and installation crew, had to be sent in by air freight charter, and assembled on site. This sort of cost must be covered as "monopoly local", supported by carrier access tariff fees, or in the resale prices charged to resellers of local service.
While not necessarily a cost factor, an adverse effect of the high latitude is the refraction of radio signals by the atmosphere. At Grise Fiord, the satellite antenna faces horizontally south at the satellite which is located over the equator. The signal from the satellite strikes the atmosphere at such a flat angle that adverse conditions can deflect the signal away from the straight-line required to reach the antenna. The effect is similar to how an oar appears bent at the surface of the water.
As a result of these factors, long distance competition arrived some nine years later than in the rest of Canada, and local competition was still not allowed through 2006. In addition, the CRTC recognized the need for external supplementary funding to sustain the company with competition, since it was viewed as essential that Northwestel remain in business to provide basic phone service to all communities it now served.
The external subsidy allows the company to offer a long distance plan, to all communities in its operating area, with a rate of 10 cents per minute for calling within Canada during off-peak hours. Without the subsidy, this low rate could not be offered. The Carrier Access Tariff (CAT) rate was also subsidized at just 7 cents per minute from 2001 to early 2007, and a lower CAT rate would have required even greater subsidy; other Canadian companies can offer lower CAT rates without subsidization. In addition, the "toll connecting trunks" (portions of the long distance networks that connect local exchanges to the long distance exchanges) are unusually long, and are regarded as part of monopoly local, requiring external subsidy to sustain. Circuit charges are also priced well above cost in order to cross-subsidize non-profitable services such as monopoly local.
Considering the difficulties of the operating area, Northwestel provides a fairly modern telecommunications network, including a basic level of such features as Call waiting
Call waiting
Call waiting , in telephony, is a feature on some telephone networks. If a calling party places a call to a called party which is otherwise engaged, and the called party has the call waiting feature enabled, the called party is able to suspend the current telephone call and switch to the new...
, dial-up Internet, Call Number Display
Caller ID
Caller ID , also called calling line identification or calling number identification or Calling Line Identification Presentation , is a telephone service, available in analog and digital phone systems and most Voice over Internet Protocol applications, that transmits a caller's number to...
in 58 exchanges (62 communities & localities), and, in the largest centres which are still smaller than Bell Canada's fair-sized towns, video conference services. More advanced features, such as Name Display, are not available, and long distance transmission of Call Number Display is limited to just 14 communities. They also provide cable services, as "TheEdge", with television and DSL
Digital Subscriber Line
Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ,...
Internet in some communities, many of them with government assistance. As NetKaster they also provide Two-way
Two-way
Two-way, two way, 2-way, or 2way may refer to:* Two-way communication occurs when information flows in both directions between two parties** Two-way radio...
Satellite Internet access
Satellite Internet access
Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through satellites. The service can be provided to users world-wide through low Earth orbit satellites. Geostationary satellites can offer higher data speeds, but their signals can not reach some polar regions of the world...
to Alberta and parts of the NWT and Nunavut and planned expansion in British Columbia, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and Yukon.
The CRTC initiated a proceeding on January 17, 2006 (Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2006-1) to review the regulatory framework for Northwestel, with a decision for a new framework issued in 2007 to go within 60 days. The CRTC examined moving Northwestel from rate-of-return regulation to price regulation, or a transitional regime. It also examined the possibility of local service competition (and under what conditions), possible split of rate base between competitive and utility, further SIP proposals, and status of long distance competition and the setting of the CAT rate.
The strongest opposition to the proposal by Northwestel came from Telus. The proposal envisioned a substantial increase in supplemental funding in order to shift from an implicit subsidy (circuit charges far above cost) to an explicit subsidy (charges closer to parity with elsewhere in Canada); there would also have been a major cut in the 7 cent-per-minute CAT rate to a new switch connect rate lower than one cent per minute, again replacing an implicit subsidy with an explicit subsidy through supplemental funding. Consumer groups expressed concern about the price-cap regime, suggesting continued regulation. Various groups expressed concern about the unknown long distance rate reductions, as for competitive reasons, neither Northwestel nor the CRTC could disclose the specifics.
The CRTC issued its decision (Telecom Decision 2007-5) on February 2, 2007, following an interim order issued on December 6, 2006 that allowed the first raise in basic network service rates since 2001 (residence customers face an increase of $2.00, equal to 1.11 percent per year over six years). The approved switch connect rate will be $0.0415 per minute per end; local service resale was approved; Toll Free
Toll-free telephone number
A toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, 800, 0800 or 1-800 number is a special telephone number which is free to the calling party, and instead the telephone carrier charges the called party the cost of the call...
remains regulated; other toll services will now be forborne from regulation; a new SIP program to replace outdated and Industry Canada
Industry Canada
Industry Canada is the department of the Government of Canada with responsibility for regional economic development, investment, and innovation/research and development. The department employs 6104 FTEs across Canada....
-non compliant transmission networks was not approved.
The company announced its new long distance plans on 21 March 2007, after adjusting its original plans to reflect the CRTC-approved rates and regime. The timing of the CRTC decision conflicted with the company's temporary loss of staff for volunteer activity at the Canada Winter Games
Canada Games
The Canada Games is a high-level multi-sport event with a National Artists Program held every two years in Canada, alternating between the Canada Winter Games and the Canada Summer Games. Athletes are strictly amateur only, and represent their province or territory.The Games were first held in 1967...
.