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2012-09-17 at 20:35

Council approves cell towers for Dawson Road, Grandview Road

By Jeff Labine, tbnewswatch.com
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City council has given Tbaytel the green light to put up two cell towers on Dawson Road and Grandview Road.

The majority of council voted in favour of the construction of two towers at 2370 Dawson Road and 151 Grandview Road. McIntyre Coun. Trevor Giertuga praised Tbaytel for the way it conducted it’s public consultation and how they responded to concerns raised by residents.

In other business, council also approved two zoning bylaw amendments.

Council moved to amend the zoning bylaw to allow a four-unit apartment be built on High Street North and demolish a single detached home and garage.

Council then approved the rezoning of the Lakehead Labour Centre from a Heavy Industrial Zone to an Urban Centre.

 

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Comments

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loudmouth101 says:
to TBAY TEL ... before you build any more towers, please fix our existing service ... drop, drop, drop, dropped calls suck!
9/17/2012 9:47:06 PM
Nivlacw says:
The dropped calls we're the result of service gaps between towers. Adding towers is intended to rectify this.
9/18/2012 6:50:37 AM
grs says:
And just what do you think the new towers are for? To string a giant clothes line between so that Tbaytel employees can dry their laundry?

Putting up new towers IS fixing the existing service.
9/18/2012 8:43:42 AM
ConcernedDenizen says:
This is so typical of people in 2012. It's announced that new towers are going up that might bring or improve service to people in a certain area, and a bunch of whiners say "whoa whoa whoa, what are you doing, don't give those people service until mine is working 100%"

Smartphones are becoming a lot more popular than most companies have realized and they are ALL playing catch-up to try and add or improve service everywhere, while the people hammering the network just complain and threaten to switch to someone else who will likely have the same or worse service, but the grass is always greener...
9/18/2012 1:07:57 PM
mamma says:
oh is Tbay Tel getting worried now that Bell is coming...they will now set up more towers.
Too late, you have NOT provided the service we pay for its time for someone new to take your customers!!!
9/17/2012 11:09:42 PM
jimmyboy says:
Instead of paying out the huge dividends TBayTel has over the years to the city coffers...they should have invested more into their system which has been providing sub-standard service for years now...with the new competition heading into town...I believe TBayTel and the City of Thunder Bay City Hall is in for one large rude awakening...with the customers they can potentially loose it will once again indicate how mis-managed and mis-directed the management over at TBayTel has been all these years...with the way they have provided their so called state of art cell phone network.!
9/18/2012 8:34:02 AM
reignmaker says:
So when Bell wants to put up towers, they cause cancer and kick babies.

When Tbaytel does it, it's great for the community.

gotcha.
9/18/2012 8:53:03 AM
meta says:
Yeah, here we go..... lets all bash TBAYTEL our own telephone company for improving our cellphone system. Hey, they only put 15 to 20 million into the City coffers every year that keeps down our taxes.

If you think Bell and all these other out of town companies are the magic fix you are sadly mistaken. I have had Bell and Fido and there coverage sucks as well.
The grass is not always greener on the other side.

The problem is that all these kids and bad mounthers spend all day on thier cellphones down loading, texting and sending pictures etc that there is no room on the network for anyone else. Try making a phone call at 3:00 pm when school gets out or at rush hour in town EVERYBODY is on their phones.
So get yoru facts straight before you shoot off your ignorant mouths !!
9/18/2012 9:04:33 AM
panzerIV says:
I agree with your statement for the most part. Tbaytel gives the city 17 million annually to keep taxes down 12.5%. They also are giving a special dividend to the ReNew Thunder Bay fund which will help build the multiplex, phase 2 of the marina, Golf Links expansion and more.

What I like about Tbaytel is that if their is problems I'm calling someone in Thunder Bay. Not someone in India to complain about my service and because they are smaller they seem more willing to listen then billion dollar companies like Bell.

To your last point. If you buy a product and don't use it to its full potential then why buy it? A smart phone can do a lot and teenagers know how to use them to their full potential. Data space isn't just a Tbaytel problem, by 2015 the current amount of data available in North America will be used up. How much data Tbaytel purchases from the spectrum auctions will show if they are willing to expand or maintain the status quo.
9/18/2012 11:47:55 AM
barry medawin says:
Ummm..... like so you're conversations are sooooo much more important than ours? ur the one badmouthing us for having a life so get real.
9/18/2012 2:05:29 PM
chezhank says:
We should be paying lower taxes on account of this but it has not happened.
Where has the money gone??????
Maybe we should not have the city manager sitting on the board.
9/18/2012 3:57:28 PM
Chief says:
Who cares about cell phones??
9/18/2012 9:19:12 AM
ALK says:
Just a FYI - when Bell gets here, they will only service in city limits, just like how Rogers was. Once you past a certain distance, no more cell serive. TBay Tel drives me insane but I love the fact I can drive almost anywhere and have cell service. I do however have an older phone so I'm still on the old network....no dropped calls or missed texts for this girl! I would love to go to Bell when they get here but if they can't offer me the range TBay Tel does, then I'll be sticking with TBay Tel.
9/18/2012 9:48:07 AM
F Lionel says:
ALK - Going to the east the coverage will be the same but going west there is almost continuous coverage from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg. I've driven this route many times and I have a Bell cell phone. I've received calls in Dryden and Ignace. The only major gap is about an hour from outside Kenora to St. Annes in Manitoba.
Check Bell's coverage maps for Canada on their website. It's laid out there in Blue and White.
9/18/2012 11:10:05 AM
educator says:
I have a Bell SIM and I've used it all over the city. They have major issues, many in the same areas at tbaytel and they haven't even started signing customers up yet.

Once a few thousand people hit Bell's network it's going to get ugly in a hurry.

Since I'm the only one on this forum with SIM cards from both tbaytel and Bell, that makes me the only one qualified to comment on both companies service.

Tbaytel has a some work to do, no one is denying that, but they already have a better network than Bell and tbaytel is committed to continue to improve their network.

Bell's go is to grab the low hanging fruit and to provide service for their existing customers who travel to Thunder Bay.
9/18/2012 11:37:46 AM
trent says:
Why can't TBayTel customers use Rogers existing 2G EDGE network as a "fallback" network? If you turn off "3G" here you get no service at all - in other cities if you disable 3G it will fallback to 2G EDGE. Why doesn't that happen here?
9/18/2012 11:41:24 AM
stuck? says:
Let me understand this correctly....people (including myself) are fed up with the awful service we get from Tbaytel. Very understandable.

Now, Tbaytel is going to put up MORE towers to HELP FIX the problems and people are getting angry because they are now TRYING TO FIX THE PROBLEM?

Doesn't make sense to me.... I'm glad they are putting up more towers to HELP WITH THE CONGESTION OF THEIR NETWORK.

It's not a gosh darn money making scheme just to line their pockets.

If they were taking towers DOWN by all means, crap all over them because they are NOT helping fix the situation. In this case, adding more towers will HELP.

People, educate yourselves. A lot of ignorance is 100% innocent because of lack of proper information but seriously, think a bit.
9/18/2012 1:27:12 PM
Chief says:
We need more towers so we can have even more people talking on their phones while driving!!
9/18/2012 2:58:53 PM
sandstorm says:
its funny how Bell has to jump through hopes (and still gets denied) to put up towers.. meanwhile tbaytel gets two without issue.. yah.. the city really isn't trying to proctect this company AT ALL.. .. btw for those of you who can't tell..that was sarcasm..
9/18/2012 3:25:28 PM
educator says:
Have you read any of the stories or watched any of the city council coverage where the Bell or tbaytel sites were discussed?

Apparently not, because if you had then you would know Industry Canada, not the local municipal council is responsible for approving or denying cell sites.

You obviously didn't read this story either because when a company be it Bell, tbaytel or any other company that wishes to construct a telecommunications tower there is due diligence that needs to happen before construct can begin.

If city council was denying Bell the right to build towers while rubber stamping tbaytel sites, don't you think Bell would have sued the city for collusion by now?

You people really need to educate yourself on the issues before spouting your opinion and calling it fact.
9/18/2012 10:29:36 PM
dirk diggler says:
ALK ,,,,for your information Bell is putting up 170 towers in N W O,and i know this as fact,,bye bye tbaytel.
9/18/2012 3:28:49 PM
debt collector says:
Bell may be putting up 170 sites, but that doesn't mean they'll be able to offer cell service on them.

These sites are partially funded by deferral account money and that money is not intended to offer additional cell coverage, it's purpose is to offer affordable broadband internet to customers in rural areas.

9/18/2012 4:48:47 PM
combatwombat says:
The more cell towers we get the more service we get the more time people spend on these damn things.
Its not lost on me the value of cell phones, but neither is it lost on me the wasted time on them. Time spent mostly for reasons that are really not important. I doubt the use of phones while driving is going down.

We are a connected society that is becoming unconnected from each other. Teenage kids paying bills worth up to a hundred dollars when they dont have a job, parents footing the bill and enabling time wasting.
Ive seen people text one another from the same table, or across a room, or mainfloor to basement, at concerts movies, and at the theatre. I have a phone I text , i have a the mental capacity and resolve not to bring it to work, and to turn it off.
The productivity of workers/ students is wasted while they text away at work, ive seen it.
Less towers less phones the better. But I dont fool myself, its a " give the people what they want"

9/19/2012 9:19:17 AM
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