Landmark CRTC ruling will affect Northwestel’s plans

Northwestel Inc. is rethinking its plan to expand wireless service into the communities after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected Bell Canada’s proposed takeover of Astral Media last week.

Northwestel Inc. is rethinking its plan to expand wireless service into the communities after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected Bell Canada’s proposed takeover of Astral Media last week.

And it appears the smallest communities in the North will be the ones to suffer.

A proposed five-year, $273-million modernization plan by Northwestel included $40 million coming from the Bell/Astral deal.

Bell is Northwestel’s parent company and, in partnership with the large corporation, it was proposed to the CRTC that $40 million of the public benefits associated with the takeover of Astral go to Northwestel’s modernization plan.

As Northwestel president Paul Flaherty explained in an interview Wednesday afternoon, that portion of the plan was set to go to improving wireless services to all 96 communities it serves across the North.

However, the CRTC’s decision not to allow Bell to buy Astral means that $40 million isn’t available.

“Clearly, we’re not going to be able to do that (part of the modernization plan),” Flaherty said.

The company often doesn’t make a profit in the smallest of the communities, he noted, so it will likely be those that are the first to be dropped from the plan.

The company is now revisiting its modernization plan to make changes for the new budget.

He expects that to happen by the end of the year.

“It’ll have a reduced scope,” he said.

He again stressed the plan goes beyond the improvements to wireless services and also focuses on upgrading infrastructure, Internet improvements and so on.

Many of those plans will still go ahead, he said, noting work on the plan will begin early next year and continue for five years.