navigation search this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message telecommunications services of trinidad and tobago ltd. type public industry telecommunications internet service provider wireless services founded 1991 headquarters port of spain trinidad tt key people mr. ronald walcott chief executive officer ag mr everald snaggs chairman products mobile broadband & tv fixed voice and enterprise data and other net income 14.38 million usd 2012 number of employees 2609 website www.tstt.co.tt telecommunications services of trinidad and tobago limited generally known as tstt is a large telephone and internet service provider in trinidad and tobago . the company which is jointly owned by the government of trinidad and tobago and cable & wireless was formed out of a merger of telco trinidad and tobago telephone company limited and textel trinidad and tobago external telecommunications company limited . tstt no longer holds a monopoly in fixed line telephone services due to flow introducing a fixed line service of their own and their cellular monopoly was broken in june 2005 when licenses were granted to digicel and laqtel . contents 1 telco 2 textel 3 enterprise services 4 mobile services 5 internet services 6 ip address block allocation 7 television services 8 security services 9 references 10 external links telco edit the first telephone was introduced in trinidad and tobago in 1883 and the first telephone exchange was located adjacent to the town hall now city hall on frederick street . by 1898 the telephone system had developed sufficiently to justify enactment of the telephone communication ordinance . around 1890 the telephone service extended westward out of port of spain to carenage and then onwards to one customer in chaguaramas . in the early 1900s the government operated telephone lines in rural areas namely from arima to manzanilla and from san fernando to cedros . history records show that a mr. bell of bacolet started the service in tobago . the early system consisted of local battery operated telephones connected to a magneto switchboard a far cry from the sophisticated electronic system which is in operation today . special cables called enamel cables were developed for use in this country and it is reported that their use became worldwide because of their durability . the british owned trinidad consolidated telephones limited was responsible for the early developmental growth of the telephone network in trinidad and tobago from the mid 1930s until 1960 . approximately 6 300 lines were in service when the country got its first 1000 line step by step exchange in 1936 . in 1947 consolidated purchased the government operated system in tobago and the first teleprinter telex link was established in 1949 . after a prolonged strike in 1960 which existed for 1 124 days the government of the day purchased the company and on november 30 trinidad consolidated telephones limited became the state owned trinidad and tobago telephone service . in 1968 the government entered into a partnership with continental telephone of the united states to whom it sold fifty percent of the holdings . this was later dissolved in 1973 and the company returned to full ownership by the government . over the years automatic step by step exchanges were gradually extended to suburban and urban areas as the company sought to keep pace with the development of the country . development programmes were implemented in 1935 1943 1952 and 1964 . a loan agreement was signed in 1974 with the world bank for 18 million dollars to carry out a massive development programme . this resulted in the introduction of modern electronic stored programme equipment at the exchanges . in 1979 the government contracted nippon electric of japan for the supply and installation of 48 000 additional lines and associated equipment . in march 1981 some 8 000 subscribers were transferred to the new electronic exchange at nelson . similar nd 20 exchanges were commissioned at thompson in san fernando chaguanas couva piarco san juan diego martin maraval arouca and st augustine . the major thrust of the company s development programme took place during the period 1982 to 1987 . between 1983 and 1989 dms 100 digital switches were installed throughout the country and as a result of this new technology training of employees became a significant factor . the new technology saw the introduction of new services such as international direct distance dialling and vertical services call waiting call forwarding and conference calling . the company s operations were divided into the following divisions technical operations marketing human resources and finance . the company s employee headcount consisted of 2 300 employees including contractors . there were approximately 160 000 customers in four major operating districts . textel edit the trinidad and tobago external telecommunications company limited textel was incorporated as a limited liability company in december 1969 a joint venture participation with the government of trinidad and tobago holding 51 % of the share capital and cable and wireless west indies limited the other 49 % . the company acquired the assets of cable and wireless in trinidad and tobago and assumed responsibility for external telecommunications commencing 1 january 1970 . as the legally constituted body charged with the responsibility for telecommunication links between the country and the rest of the world textel provided the transmission switching and signalling facilities to interconnect with the international facilities of all other countries . enterprise services edit private branch exchange equipment avaya mitel cisco domestic and international leased circuits metro ethernet trunk lines direct lines and value added services class services internet services leased line blink broadband blink on the go blink hot spot mobile services mobile handsets along with bmobile corporate plans blackberry bes services bis services bps solutions blackberry for prepaid video conferencing vc cloud services telepresence sip trunks security services mobile services edit main article bmobile bmobile logo tstt has re branded its mobile division to bmobile along with other cable and wireless companies in the region . tstt s mobile service currently uses the gsm network for data and voice . in 2007 they began launching data services on a cdma network . their previous tdma network was discontinued on august 31 2006 . 1 as of 2006 competition has been introduced into its mobile market in trinidad and tobago . digicel which also serves other countries in the caribbean began operations on their gsm network in early 2006 . digicel and tstt have since had legal battles over an inter connection agreement to allow communication between their two networks . 2 laqtel a trinidadian owned company was also awarded a cdma license but on march 14 2008 had its license revoked . 3 internet services edit tstt internet services include dial up service wireless broadband service based on evdo technology and adsl based broadband service . it s also the most expensive per mbp s in the country . tstt also offers a variety of data solutions for the corporate sector including leased circuits virtual private networks frame relay services and metro ethernet service with speeds up to 1gb . in october 2007 tstt introduced its adsl2 broadband internet service branded blink broadband with speeds up to 10mbit s. 4 however lagging behind their competitor columbus communications they still have a large portion of the market secured due to their previous copper network . yet to outdated technology and packages on their copper and fiber networks many people have flocked to the competitor . if these errors are not corrected they are sure to fail . they have since sought refuge in the ever expanding technology of lte . 5 yet they are making the same mistakes as before throttling download and upload speeds next to nothing mbit s. this has gained them the upper hand in accessing markets blocked by topographical features . many rural settlements have since been the main targets to obtain revenue . the service in question has not lived up to expectations which is mainly due poor performance attributed to the over saturation of users and lack of available bandwidth . the new packages include up to a maximum of 40mbp s download and 4mbp s upload only on their fiber network limited to certain areas . their lte network supports up to 5mbp s download and 1mbp s upload . 6 it s known to be the slowest but the most reliable on connectivity . file blink bmobile broadband packages.png thumb blink bmobile s current internet packages . ip address block allocation edit the following ipv4 and ipv6 address blocks has been assigned to tstt by the latin america and caribbean network information centre ; 7 ipv4 blocks unique addresses starting ip ending ip 186.44 15 131 072 186 .44.0.0 186.45.255.255 190.58 16 65 536 190 .58.0.0 190.58.255.255 190.59 16 65 536 190 .59.0.0 190.59.255.255 196.3.132 22 1 024 196.3.132.0 196.2.135.255 196.3.136 21 2 048 196.3.136.0 196.3.143.255 196.3.144 22 1 024 196.3.144.0 196.3.147.255 200.108.0 20 4 096 200.108.0.0 200.108.15.255 200.108.16 20 4 096 200.108.16.0 200.108.31.255 201.238.64 18 16 384 201 .238.64.0 201.238.127.255 209.94.192 19 8 192 209.94.192.0 209.94.223.255 total ipv4 299 008 ipv6 blocks unique addresses starting ip ending ip 2800 420 30 298 2800 420 0 0 0 0 0 0 2800 423 255 255 255 255 255 255 total ipv6 3.17 1029 television services edit tstt is also in the process of rolling out its new tv service called blink entertainment which is based on the iptv technology . the company is currently rolling out a wireless version of this service based on gsm technology . security services edit tstt has entered the electronic surveillance market as well by launching their blink vigilance service with an optional add on of armed response . references edit the trinidad guardian online edition ver 2.0 microsoft word decision no. 2 master.doc troubled laqtel loses licence http ttcs.wordpress.com 2007 10 02 tstt blink broadband adsl2 pricing tstt blink broadband adsl2 pricing http tstt.co.tt news blink i bmobile 4g lte key fast wireless internet http www.blinkbroadband.tt residential packages qt wired packages 4 qt wired packages http lacnic.net cgi bin lacnic whois lg en & query tt tsot1 lacnic external links edit company website bmobile website blink broadband website blink entertainment website tstt user forum latin america and caribbean network information centre v t e cable satellite and other specialty television providers v t e cable satellite and other speciality television providers in africa asia and oceania cable cable tv hong kong cablevision lebanon cablelink destiny cable docomo pacific digicable india eonet japan first media foxtel hathway hot incablenet itscom japan jctv japan kbro lanka broadband networks sri lanka montage cable tv nigeria nayatel okevision optus television ooredoo qatar ppctv rostelecom siti cable skycable tbc taiwan tokai cable top tv indonesia transact tata sky truevisions united communication service vodafone new zealand worldcall satellite airtel digital tv aora astro malaysia bein big tv indonesia canalsat afrique canalsat cal donie cignal consat nigeria dd free dish ddishtv dialog tv sri lanka dish tv dish tv sri lanka dish home dishhd dream satellite tv dstv foxtel g sat hitv indosat indovision k vietnam kristal astro kt skylife medianet metro digital mbc mrtv 4 myhd njoi ntv plus orangetv osn pacific broadcasting services fiji pearl digital tv pra international green group india real vu reliance digital tv sky direct sky pacific sky perfectv sky television new zealand sky net star greater china star india starsat south africa star select star tv sun direct tata sky telone zimbabwe transvision indonesia trendtv truevisions videocon d2h viva wowow yes israel zap zuku fiber iptv sky on demand btv bestv du fetch tv fine tv gta teleguam hikari tv hypptv malaysia lg uplus maroc telecom my.t net tv nepal now tv olleh tv omantel peo tv sri lanka rostelecom saudi telecom company singtel tv skytel mongolia starhub