Northwestel permanently increasing data caps on most internet packages

As Northwestel’s temporary Covid-19 measures come to an end, the northern telecommunications company says most of its internet customers will continue to have access to more data without added costs.

In a press release Tuesday, Northwestel announced that it has received regulatory approval from the CRTC to permanently boost the amount of data on select business and residential internet plans with no rate increases.

It says many non-regulated plans will also see a monthly data increase.

“We know our customers want more usage permanently.” Northwestel President Curtis Shaw was quoted as saying.

“These changes to Northwestel internet plans will make more permanent usage available in every community while respecting the capacity constraints of local network technologies.”

Northwestel told Cabin Radio earlier this month that 99 per cent of its residential customers will see data increases.

That includes a boost for residential cable and fibre customers between five and 250 GB of data, depending on their internet plan, an additional 15 GB for satellite internet users, and between 40 to 100 GB for terrestrial DSL users. 

Some of the more expensive internet packages for businesses will also see data caps increase.

In March, Northwestel implemented a number of measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that prevented customers working and studying from home from facing overage fees. 

Northwestel says most of its residential customers will see a data cap increase.

Those temporary measures, which included waiving overage fees in some communities, will come to an end after June 30. 

The new data boosts will come into effect starting July 1. New monthly data amounts will be applied automatically and customers do not need to contact Northwestel to request the increase.