MARATHON—The Township of Marathon received exciting news Tuesday after learning that their community will have Tbaytel Fibre technology.
President and CEO, Dan Topatigh, announced this expansion stating that, “To us investing in the future means, investing in our region, in our neighbourhoods and with our neighbour”. Tbaytel is proud to become part of the community of Marathon as a neighbour and as a provider of Fibre technology services.
They plan to open an all - new retail space that they describe as, “helping Marathon elevate the way they work, live and play”. Topatigh said that, "Tbaytel has been building fibre technology for over a decade and in Thunder Bay is said to be “98 per cent covered”.
Having brought the same level of service to Fort Frances, Dryden, and Kenora, they are delighted about bringing this service to Marathon as well. “This will be a game changer for a small municipality like Marathon. I think what you know, fibre and digital technology do, is they eliminate geographic barriers”, stated Marathon’s chief administration officer and clerk, Daryl Skworchinski.
Skworchinski continued by stating that, “It really you know gives us the opportunity to be a global economy in a small town. The technology in the fibre is going to be the asset that we’ve been looking for”.
The Mayor of Marathon was also very pleased with this fibre technology coming to the residents of his community. Mayor Rick Dumas commented, “That high speed, good clarity, good data availability is gonna be key to our communities. That discussion started with council and Administration moved up to working with Tbaytel. Then of course making the application to the Ontario government through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, we were successful getting our contract awarded”.
“Hopefully the biggest change that we would like to see is more diversified industry coming into Marathon, a different tech industry, bringing in a new set of skills into the community, continued Greg Vallance, employment advisor with Northwest Employment Works, Confederation College.
Dumas also added that as a result of having this fibre technology that, " The business community can work with their technology and upgrade that to make sure that they’re connected to the world and providing the best possible service to their consumer. And the consumer can benefit, the residence can benefit from the technology at home. When you can click on a button or voice command something with the technology you’re gonna be having in your home, once this is all up and running, and I think that’s gonna be the amazing part."
All partners in this project affirmed that this is "creating a lot of buzz" in the community.
The benefits of Tbaytel’s fibre technology are endless, not only for the community, but for different organizations and businesses within the region, in particular education and health care.
Topatigh concluded this announcement by stating that this project is not only good for Tbaytel but for all of Northwestern Ontario, whether you are at work, school or at home. With added employment opportunities for Marathon, he pointed out that this service will be providing customers, “a five product bundle which will offer better choice and better savings."
This service will no doubt provide the community, in particular, in education and with career planning for young students, teenagers and adults, a service that will connect them to opportunities that they had not had access to before.
