Northwestel Inc. (stylized as NorthwesTel) is a Canadian telecommunications company that is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) and long-distance carrier in the territories of Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Originally established in 1979 by the Canadian National Railway from CN's northern telecommunications assets, it has been owned by BCE Inc. (formerly Bell Canada Enterprises) since 1988. Origins Until World War II The earliest telephone service in Northwestel's present-day operating territory was in Dawson City, established in 1899 just after the peak of the Klondike Gold Rush. However, that system was not linked into the North American phone network until the 1960s. Communications with the outside required the use of radio or radio telegraphy and did not connect with telephone lines. The independent company, Yukon Telephone Syndicate, was purchased by CN Telegraph (CNT) from Northern Light Power and Coal Company of England in 1962, and a dial telephone system was installed later in the 1960s to replace the 19th-century magneto board. Robert W. Service was one of the few Dawson residents who could afford telephone service during his residence in Dawson prior to World War I. At least one other independent company was established in Whitehorse and was able to trace its service back to 1901. The Mayo Utilities Company was established in 1920 and provided telephone, electricity and water in Mayo and Elsa/Keno City. It was sold in 1942, and the owner sold off the electric and water operations and joined it with the Whitehorse company to form the Yukon Telephone Company. The Royal Canadian Corps of Signals established long-distance shortwave telegraphic communications stations in the north in 1923, prior to World War II. Their function was to enable the relay of telegraphic messages to and from the wired CN and CP telegraph networks in the south. From 1959 to March 1960, the stations were handed off to the federal Department of Transport. By 1972, they had become redundant to the fully-developed CNT local and long-distance telephone service, with access to the CN Telegram service via the telephone operator. World War II In 1943, the US Army completed the first terrestrial long-distance system in the form of a pole line along the Alaska Highway. Components that normally took months to build were assembled in weeks. Although limited in capacity, the system after the war served as the backbone long-distance network that linked Whitehorse with the south. It provided