Island Telecom Inc. was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

. Its headquarters is located in Summerside. In 2014 a group of Internet Service Providers in Prince Edward Island was consolidated under the Island Telecom brand name; the legal name of "Island Telecom Inc." applies to the main company. In January 2015 it was announced that Island Telecom henceforth was to operate fixed-wireless internet service provider Route 2, which had until then been municipally-owned by the City of Summerside.theguardian.pe.ca: "Island Telecom taking over internet service in Summerside"
30 Jan 2015 This created a third player in the marketplace behind

Bell Aliant Bell Aliant is a brand name used by Bell Canada for Telecommunications in Canada, telecommunications services in Atlantic Canada. Prior to 2015, Bell Aliant Inc. (formerly Aliant Inc.) was a separate company providing telecom services in the Atl ...

and Eastlink. Island Telecom serves 20 Mbit/s throughout Prince Edward Island as of 2015 and 100 Mbit/s in certain areas of the province as of 2016. In 2018 the company, through related companies, began offering 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s services on its province-wide fibre optic network. The member companies of Island Telecom are ISN Wireless, Ruranet, Kennet, and Route 2. The combined companies service the vast majority of the province of

with a combination of

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

, DSL, fibre optic, and fixed-wireless connectivity options. It provides

gigabit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented a ...

fibre service under the Optra name in

Summerside, Prince Edward Island Summerside is a Canadian city in Prince County, Prince Edward Island. It is the second largest city in the province and the primary service centre for the western part of the island. History Summerside was officially incorporated as a town on ...

, making that city one of only a handful in Canada to have true Gigabit fiber service. Island Telecom introduced digital phone service in 2016, available on the cable, Optra fibre, and next-generation fixed-wireless networks. While the voice quality is very high due to the all-digital technology, digital phone service may not work during a power outage and the company requires customers to have a mobile phone for emergencies such as calling 9-1-1 when electrical power is not available. A different company briefly existed under the 'Island Telecom' name when in 1998 the MT&T-controlled company Island Telephone, commonly known as 'IslandTel', was renamed Island Telecom Inc. to reflect the growing diversity of its business areas.sedar.com: "Island Telecom Inc."
/ref> It merged with the other Stentor Alliance companies in Atlantic Canada in 1999 to form 3595641 Canada Inc., later renamed Aliant Telecom Inc. / Télécommunications Aliant Inc. (now

), and disappeared entirely by 2001. The company had been founded on April 29, 1929, when the Prince Edward Island Legislature enacted an act to incorporate "The Island Telephone Company Limited", later known as 'Island Telephone'. An even earlier company "The Telephone Company of Prince Edward Island" was founded in 1885, but suffered severe financial hardship when on September 5, 1911, disaster struck as fire destroyed the company's newly installed switchboard and caused heavy damage to the central office in Charlottetown. By December 1 of 1911 a controlling interest in the company was bought by

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

-based MT&T. Eastern Telegraph and Telephone Co. became owner of "The Telephone Company of Prince Edward Island" on January 30, 1922, which led to the creation of "The Island Telephone Company Limited" seven years later. In 1998, the original company was renamed Island Telecom Inc. to reflect the growing diversity of its business areas.

References

{{Reflist Companies based in Prince Edward Island Summerside, Prince Edward Island Telecommunications companies of Canada