Telecom Trends

Canada's Telecom Hall of Fame has announced this year's laureates, to be inducted at its November 4 gala dinner in Ottawa.

This year's class includes 2 cable TV pioneers among the 5 individuals to be honoured.

Hall of Fame director Lorne Abugov said:

For a fifth straight year, we are proud and thrilled to shine a spotlight - this year more of a coastal beacon - on outstanding Canadian telecom achievers and achievements

The inductees are:

• André Chagnon, the founder of Quebec cable giant, Vidéotron, not only propelled the company into international success but was also first brought interactivity to cable TV service in the early 1990s.
• Israel (Sruki) Switzer is widely regarded as the most knowledgeable cable technology engineer Canada has produced, provided leadership and advocacy in the development of concepts and practices that advanced the cable television industry and inspired other great Canadian broadcast entrepreneurs.
• Colin A. Franklin advanced Canada’s early global leadership in satellite communications as chief electrical engineer for Canada's first satellite programme, the Alouette 1.
• Francis Fox helped pioneer the introduction of cellular wireless telephony in this country when he, as Minister of Communications, made the historic 1983 decision to issue cellular radiocommunication licences.
• the late Donald A. Chisholm has been hailed as the 'Father of the Digital World', the Bell Northern Research digital switching initiative of the mid-1970s that ranks as one of the boldest and most successful technology advances in telecommunications technology of the 20th Century.

In addition, the Hall of Fame will recognize the two small coastal communities of Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Bamfield, British Columbia that for decades were Canada’s international telecommunications gateways to the world - the original landing sites of Canada’s first Atlantic and Pacific trans-oceanic submarine telegraph cables.

I encourage you to visit the Telecom Hall of Fame website and tour the virtual hall of fame. You can find additional background information about the laureates here.

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