Ontera

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title: "Ontera" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1902-establishments-in-ontario", "bell-aliant", "former-crown-corporations-of-ontario", "ontario-northland-transportation-commission", "telecommunications-companies-of-canada", "companies-based-in-north-bay,-ontario", "bce-inc.-acquisitions", "internet-service-providers-of-canada", "canadian-companies-established-in-1902"] description: "Canadian telecommunications company" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontera" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Canadian telecommunications company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	Ontera
native_name_lang
former_name
type	Subsidiary
industry	Telecommunications
founded
founder
hq_location_city	North Bay, Ontario
owner	BCE Inc.
services	DSL, wireless broadband, dial-up, landline, long-distance calling
parent	Bell Canada
ratio
rating
website
::

| name = Ontera | logo = | logo_size = | logo_alt = | logo_caption = | logo_padding = | image = | image_size = | image_alt = | image_caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | former_name = | type = Subsidiary | industry = Telecommunications | founded =
| founder = | hq_location = | hq_location_city = North Bay, Ontario | hq_location_country = | area_served = | owner = BCE Inc. | key_people = | products = | brands = | services = DSL, wireless broadband, dial-up, landline, long-distance calling | parent = Bell Canada | ratio = | rating = | website =

Ontera is a telecommunications company in Ontario, Canada and a subsidiary of Bell Canada. It provides local telephone service in the Northern Ontario towns of Bear Island, Iroquois Falls, Marten River, Moosonee, Moose Factory and Temagami, and also offers long-distance services in most of area code 705.

History

Ontera was founded as the Ontario Northland Telecommunications division of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario, in 1902. It was the exclusive provider of long-distance calling services in many rural Northeastern Ontario markets until the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved long-distance competition in 2000. The name was changed to O.N.Tel Inc. in the 1990s, then changed its trading name to O.N.Telcom in 2000, and then renamed to Ontera in 2004.

Divestment

In April 2014, the Ontario government announced it would sell Ontera to Bell Aliant. According to the Public Accounts of Ontario prepared by the provincial treasury board, the 6.3 million sale was made at a loss of $61 million.

The acquisition was completed in October 2014. Bell Canada, which had been the largest shareholder in Bell Aliant and most of its predecessors throughout their respective histories, took full ownership of Bell Aliant in late 2014.

Following its divestment, Ontera did not maintain investments in network infrastructure and stopped accepting new customers. The municipal council of Temagami approved a resolution in September 2020 to lobby the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to require Ontera upgrade its infrastructure and allow third-party resellers.

Network Infrastructure

Ontera provides customer-premises LAN, VoIP and Internet security systems, DSL, fibre optic and wireless data services. The company owns and operates an extensive fibre optic telecommunications network throughout most of Northeastern Ontario.

In September 2008, Ontera announced plans to install a ring network, to strengthen network reliability, which was completed by spring 2009.

References

References

1. "History". Ontera.
2. "Ontera sale to Bell Aliant leaves questions for customers, employees {{!".
3. "Ontario Newsroom".
4. (September 30, 2015). "Provincially owned telecom firm sold at loss of almost $61 million". Toronto Star.
5. (October 1, 2014). "Bell Aliant acquires Ontera". North Bay Nugget.
6. (3 June 2020). "Renewed push to bring high-speed internet to rural areas, including the north". CTV News Northern Ontario.
7. (September 10, 2020). "Temagami looking for better internet options". BayToday.
8. (2008-09-24). "Ontera customers to Benefit from Investment in State-of-the-Art-Network". Ontera press release.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::