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. In 2012 Northwestel complied with the CRTC's request for a network modernization plan, which resulted in considerable opposition from northern rival telecoms. In February 2013, Northwestel released a revised modernization plan, which president Paul Flaherty explained to the public. But the new plan was criticized by the government of Nunavut and Northwestel's largest competitor SSi Micro. Parallel to this, another regulatory process before the CRTC has been underway regarding the wholesale prices Northwestel is permitted to charge competitors for access to its fibre cable connecting the Northwest Territories to southern Canada. In March 2015, the CRTC ordered Northwestel to reduce residential Internet rates in the Northwest Territories, while a final