WINNIPEG – Twenty years ago today, Dr. Don Reimer, CEO of the Reimer Express group of companies, from a tour boat in the Red River at The Forks, made the first cell phone call on the MTS Mobility network.
"As we celebrate our 100th anniversary in 2008, it is fitting to mark today as an important milestone in the evolution of our business," said Pierre Blouin, CEO of MTS Allstream, in a release touting the 20th anniversary of the company’s wireless business.
"The wireless industry is in many ways a symbol of how technology can transform the way we live our lives, and in the process, revolutionize our business. From one call on one phone 20 years ago in the era where the only choice in phones was between a black or a grey handset, to a service today offering countless different handsets, new features, e-mail, video and audio downloads, MTS Mobility plays an increasingly important role in the lives of Manitobans,” added Blouin.
"I can’t think of a device that has grown and changed business and personal lives faster than cellular telephones," said Dr. Reimer in the release. "They provide me with the reach to connect anywhere in the world, and that is very important. To this day, I have retained the cell phone number that MTS Mobility provided for me to use when I made the first call, and I am proud to be using the very first cell phone number given out in Manitoba."
MTS Mobility’s first two cellular sites were located in downtown Winnipeg at 360 Main Street and at Grassmere Road in West St. Paul. Between these two locations, the network could support a total of 15 calls at the same time.
Today, MTS Mobility boasts Manitoba’s widest network, covering 97% of Manitoba residents, including 72% with EV-DO high-speed wireless data service, and over 200 sites that are capable of supporting thousands of simultaneous calls, text and other transmissions.
As at December 31, 2007, MTS Mobility had over 394,000 subscribers.
