One of this country's largest voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service providers, has announced its plans to expand services in the North to provide competition for Northwestel Inc.

Ontario's Iristel and Ice Wireless, of Inuvik, N.W.T. have joined forces to expand the range of services available in the Northwest Territories, the Yukon and Nunavut including home phone service.

"Northwestel's monopoly is officially at an end,” Iristel president Samer Bishay, who was recently also named president of Ice Wireless, said Tuesday.

"We are proud to finally be able to give northern Canadian residents a choice when it comes to their local phone company while at the same time launching an aggressive expansion of our cellular network across the North.”

Starting this summer, privately held Iristel, which operates a VoIP network in all 10 provinces and is a major shareholder in Ice, will be competing with Northwestel in a range of telephone services including VoIP, wholesale long distance and Wifi Internet.

Meanwhile, Ice Wireless' network is set to expand in the coming months across the North and compete with Bell Mobility.

The rollout will begin in Yellowknife in July and continue to other markets — including Whitehorse — by the end of the summer.

In December 2011, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ordered that other competitive telephone companies be allowed to enter the territories to offer phone service starting this month.

Currently, Ice Wireless operates a cellular network that covers large areas of the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Bishay told the Star yesterday that Northwestel's position once made it too costly for the cell company to offer more than just basic calling and texting on its phones.

Now, new data services will be rolled out, including high-speed 3G data. The 3G plans will allow consumers with smart phones to use Ice's network.

"Whether people choose Northwestel or us, choice is going to drive the market, and in the end that creates a better market for the consumer,” Bishay said.

His company will be offering a variety of services bundled together, he added.

Among the options his company will offer are transferring voicemail from a home phone to a cell phone, virtual faxing and other technology-based extras.

As for Northwestel, the company which has been in the North for the last 60 years says it's counting on its local employees and new deals to maintain its customer base.

"We have been preparing internally and externally for competition for a while,” said Emily Younker, a spokesperson for Northwestel.

Younker said the company will offer superior customer service from a fleet of employees who all live up North.

"We feel like our northern workforce gives us a competitive edge,” she said. "We've got local technicians who can come to your home personally and know your community.”

Younker pointed out that Northwestel has been investing millions of dollars annually into its network.

The company has also met all requirements set out by the CRTC with regard to improvements.

Meanwhile, Iristel is not the only company that has expressed interest in taking part in home phone competition.

SSi Micro, a Yellowknife-based broadband service provider, has also said it is preparing to offer local telephone services but has not announced a launch date.