The City of Whitehorse is proposing that all Yukon communities join hands to fight Northwestel Inc.'s Internet billing policy.

Coun. Florence Roberts has presented the proposal in the form of a resolution for consideration by the Yukon's eight municipalities, two hamlets and four local advisory councils.

Elected representatives of the communities will be gathering in Dawson City the first week of May for the annual general meeting of the Association of Yukon Communities.

City council is scheduled to vote Monday whether to forward the resolution to the annual meeting.

The resolution also asks the communities to petition the Yukon government to join the resistance.

Northwestel's practice of billing for cross-town Internet exchanges that never leave the territory is not right, says the resolution.

It states the charges are an unnecessary burden on Yukoners, businesses and government.

"Be it resolved that the Association of Yukon Communities petition Northwestel to stop the practice of levying packet charges on data within the territory,” reads the proposed resolution.

"Be it further resolved that the Association of Yukon Communities petition the Government of Yukon to join with the communities in their advocacy efforts to stop Northwestel's practice of levying cross-town packet charges on data within the territory.”

Mike Stevely, the city's manager of information systems, explained the charges – without getting too technical – would be similar to Northwestel adding individual phone calls to the monthly phone bill every time somebody called his or her neighbour.

It's accepted when Internet users are going out of the territory that additional charges are appropriate, just as charges for long distance phone calls are, he explained.

Stevely said it's a different story when someone is emailing his or her buddy next door, and the information exchange isn't even leaving the City of Whitehorse but the exchange is being clocked on the accounts of both the sender and receiver.

Every time there's an exchange, local or otherwise, it's charged as usage on a customer's allowable bandwidth, he said.

"This, I think, would be a benefit to everybody in the territory,” Stevely said of the proposal to do away with charges for cross-town Internet exchanges.

"I do not see a reason why the local traffic should be billed, particularly when I am paying for it and you are paying for it.”

Northwestel spokeswoman Emily Younker said this morning the majority of Internet traffic in the territory is north-south, and does indeed leave the Yukon.

Just because somebody is accessing the website of a local business doesn't mean the website is being provided and maintained by a local service provider, she said.

Younker said it's the same for an email address.

"However, we do have some flat-rate services within municipalities and will happily engage with municipalities to find a solution to the problem,” said Younker.