The Commission will also hold a proceeding to look at ways to more precisely define high cost areas. This should allow subsidies to be more accurately targeted at actual high cost areas. Northwestel NWTel serves subscribers in Canada's northern territories. It delivers service to as many as 96 communities, providing them with about 68,000 telephone lines. More than 80 percent of these communities scattered over NWTel's operating territory have fewer than 500 telephone lines.
Many communities are accessible only by air.
As a result, NWTel has the lowest telephone line density in the country. This low density, combined with the large size and severe climatic conditions of its territory, requires NWTel to operate and maintain a network without the efficiencies available to companies in southern Canada. Due to its unique and difficult circumstances, the Commission is concerned that NWTel may not be able to achieve the basic level of telephone service, in the same way as the telecommunications companies in the rest of Canada. To address these concerns, the Commission has directed NWTel to file a service improvement plan for achieving the basic level of telephone service over time and upgrading the quality of long distance service. The Commission has also begun a public proceeding to examine NWTel's corporate revenues compared with the total amount of money that would be required to achieve the basic level of telephone service.