 | |
| Formerly | Avalon Cablevision Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Company type | Privately held company |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Predecessors |
|
| Founder | Danny Williams |
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Fate | Acquired byRogers Communications |
| Successor | Rogers Cable |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Newfoundland and Labrador |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 200 (2000) |
Cable Atlantic was acable television provider serving much of the population of theCanadian province ofNewfoundland and Labrador. The company's primary owner throughout its history wasDanny Williams, although ownership was shared with other investors[who?] from time to time[when?].
Under the nameAvalon Cablevision, the company secured the cable TV franchise for theSt. John's/Mount Pearl area (on theAvalon Peninsula, hence the name). It became Cable Atlantic on March 20, 1990 after acquiring cablesystems in the three next largestNewfoundland and Labrador communities:Corner Brook (previously Shellbird Cable),Gander (previously Omni Cablevision Ltd), andGrand Falls-Windsor (previously Central Cable Systems Ltd). However, most rural areas of the province were served by N1 Cable (later Regional Cable,Persona, and most recentlyEastlink).
Cable Atlantic also operated a provincial dial-upInternet provider, "The Zone", and acompetitive local exchange carrier that providedtelephone services to businesses and the provincial government. It also offeredRoad Runner cable Internet service under licence fromTime Warner Cable, whereas most Canadian cable companies were at the time using the rival@Home Network backed byTCI andComcast.
The company was sold toRogers Cable in November 2000.[1] Cable Atlantic's telecom division and the company's longtime 541Kenmount Road headquarters had been sold separately toGroup Telecom in April of that year, although those assets were ultimately also acquired by Rogers in 2005, after changing hands four additional times.[nb 1] 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 provincialProgressive 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 aspremier from 2003 to 2010.
It was later revealed that Williams had been very close to selling Cable Atlantic toCogeco, 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 buyVidéotron fell through.[3]