TBayTel revamps to increase competitiveness.

• Position: THUNDER BAY CITY REPORT - Brief Article

In a bid to improve its competitive edge, TbayTel intends to enter the cable television services market as part of a new move to redesign itself as more of a dynamic business enterprise.

"We want the company to operate more as a business than a city department," says Phill Comrie, chief executive officer of the municipally owned company.

Comrie says the driving force behind the change came with recent calls from the federal government encouraging more local competition between telecom providers. The Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission commissioned a study that found that a small handful of companies still control the vast majority of local services across Canada. Comrie says allowing cable companies to provide Internet service and telephone companies to provide cable service created a climate where the change was feasible.

"All of a sudden there's a new landscape we're living in," Comrie says, referring to the trend towards "bundling" different services together, such as telephone, cable and Internet.

With the move, TBayTel hopes to...