Thunder Bay Telephone is a municipally owned telecommunications company operating in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and the surrounding area. The company uses the marketing name TBayTel in advertisements and official communications.
TBayTel contributes over $20M to the city of Thunder Bay.
The first phone call in Thunder Bay took place in 1902, and Thunder Bay Telephone was formed to connect the communities of Port Arthur and Fort William.
TBayTel wireless is the largest cellular service provider in Northwestern Ontario. TBayTel uses the CDMA2000 technology with 1xRTT and EV-DO for their 3G data speeds. TBayTel also has a 4G HSPA+ network, and is the only HSPA network in Northwest Ontario, except in a few cities such as Thunder Bay and Kenora.
TBayTel announced on March 24 that they will be launching their own HSPA network in the second half of 2010. This announcement came at the same time as their planned agreement with Rogers Communications to provide Canada-wide roaming.
TBayTel has domestic roaming agreements with providers TELUS (CDMA only), Bell (CDMA only), Bell Aliant (CDMA only), MTS Allstream, SaskTel (CDMA only). and Rogers. Telus, Bell, Bell Aliant, and Sasktel are moving from CDMA to HSPA. Industry Canada has proposed making it mandatory to provide roaming access to competing carriers.
TBayTel launched Digital IPTV Service on November 23, 2010. At launch, the service provided HDTV, whole-home PVR and web-based scheduling of recordings using Motorola VIP2262 set-top boxes.
In November 2012, TBayTel purchased Dryden Municipal Telephone Service's (DMTS) the wireless subscriber base. The DMTS wireless network was shut down in December 2012.
Famous quotes containing the words thunder and/or telephone:
“After night’s thunder far away had rolled
The fiery day had a kernel sweet of cold”
—Edward Thomas (1878–1917)
“In the United States all business not transacted over the telephone is accomplished in conjunction with alcohol or food, often under conditions of advanced intoxication. This is a fact of the utmost importance for the visitor of limited funds ... for it means that the most expensive restaurants are, with rare exceptions, the worst.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)