Northwestel - Modern Corporate History

Modern Corporate History

Northwestel was established in 1979 by its owner, Canadian National Railways, 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.

On December 14, 2011, by way of Telecom Regulatory Policy 2011-711, the CRTC announced that the territory of Northwestel would now be opened to local competition beginning 1 May 2012.

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.