TECH LEADER.

• Author: GOULIQUER, DIANNE
• Position: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada - Brief Article

Thunder Bay is well on its way to becoming a leader in information technology in the North

Gone are the days when Thunder Bay was limited by its distance from larger business centres, officials with Thunder Bay Telephone say. Northwestern Ontario's largest community is now on a level playing field with the rest of the country and is quickly becoming a leader for the region.

For years Thunder Bay has struggled with geographic obstacles, Timo Hiibeck, manager of business development and strategic planning for Thunder Bay Telephone says. But modern technology has helped the city overcome those hurdles and opened the door to new opportunities.

Perhaps one of the most important developments was the introduction of high-speed Internet to Thunder Bay last May. Now the city will act as a leader for the region when the service is expanded throughout the northwest.

"Thunder Bay Telephone, Dryden and Kenora primarily are the three main partners entering into a relationship to set up a regional-wide high-speed data network," Hiibeck says. "(The network is) supposed to stretch from Manitouwadge in the east, right through to Kenora, Fort Frances and Rainy River in the west and Thunder Bay (will) be the main hub and administrative site."

Hiibeck says Thunder Bay Telephone's success in winning a bid for a third-generation (3G) wireless communications licence has also put the city on the map as a technology leader. Thunder-Bay Telephone was selected by Industry Canada earlier this year to introduce wireless communications services to all of Northern Ontario, from Parry Sound north and west to the Manitoba border.

3G wireless technology can send a page to a wireless phone at 2,000 kilobits per second, compared to just 144 kilobits per second using second-generation wireless technology. Download times can also be reduced to fractions of a second.

Thunder Bay, in its bid for the licence, was originally aiming to operate only in northwestern Ontario, but Industry Canada decided to expand the service area.

Hiibeck says plans to implement the technology are now underway. "(The technology is) going to hook into Thunder Bay from a regional perspective, and we think that's a good thing," Hiibeck says. "Right now we're also trying to put some plans together to start deploying high-speed digital wireless for both wireless data applications and digital cellular."

But Thunder Bay Telephone isn't the only company leading the way in terms of technology. Lakehead...