Cable Atlantic was a

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

provider serving much of the population of the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

province of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

. The company's primary owner throughout its history was Danny Williams, although ownership was shared with other investors from time to time. Under the name Avalon Cablevision, the company secured the cable TV franchise for the St. John's/

Mount Pearl Mount Pearl is the fourth-largest municipality and second-largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The city is located southwest of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the isla ...

area (on the

Avalon Peninsula The Avalon Peninsula () is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland in Canada. It is in size. The peninsula is home to 270,348 people, about 52% of the province's population, according to the 2016 Ca ...

, hence the name). It became Cable Atlantic on March 20, 1990 after acquiring cablesystems in the three next largest

communities:

Corner Brook Corner Brook ( 2021 population: 19,316 CA 29,762) is a city located on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Corner Brook is the fifth largest settlement in Newfoundland and Labrado ...

(previously Shellbird Cable), Gander (previously Omni Cablevision Ltd), and

Grand Falls-Windsor Grand Falls-Windsor is a town located in the central region of the island of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, with a population of 13,853 at the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census. The town i ...

(previously Central Cable Systems Ltd). However, most rural areas of the province were served by N1 Cable (later Regional Cable,

Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

, and most recently Eastlink). Cable Atlantic also operated a provincial dial-up

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

provider, "The Zone", and a

competitive local exchange carrier A competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) is a North American telecommunications provider classification that emerged based on the competition model of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the United States. The act required the previously esta ...

that provided

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

services to businesses and the provincial government. It also offered Road Runner cable Internet service under licence from

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...

, whereas most Canadian cable companies were at the time using the rival @Home Network backed by TCI and

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

. The company was sold to

Rogers Cable Rogers Cable is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern and Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Roger ...

in November 2000. Cable Atlantic's telecom division and the company's longtime 541 Kenmount Road headquarters had been sold separately to Group Telecom in April of that year, although those assets were ultimately also acquired by Rogers in 2005, after changing hands four additional times. Other departments were moved to other parts of the city at the time of the sale. Rogers Cable's head office in St. John's was moved to 22 Austin Street. Rogers St. John's community channel (RogersTV), moved offices to Water Street with a studio in Pleasentville, then later moved to Woodgate Plaza on Kenmount Road. With company reorganization and the redevelopment of Avalon Mall / Woodgate Plaza area, it returned to 541 Kenmount Road 2017-2018. At the time of the sale, it was rumoured that Williams would run for the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party, and the sale of his business assets added fuel to those rumours. Williams was successful in becoming PC leader the following year, and served as

premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

from 2003 to 2010. It was later revealed that Williams had been very close to selling Cable Atlantic to Cogeco, but that Rogers came in with a superior last-minute bid just before the Cogeco deal was to be announced, after Rogers's deal to buy

Vidéotron Vidéotron is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company founded in 1964. It's active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand, cable telephony, wireless communication and Internet access services. Owned by Qu ...

fell through.

Footnotes

References

{{Rogers Communications Defunct cable and DBS companies of Canada Rogers Communications