42 October 2015 - Business View Caribbean
Telecommunications Services of
Trinidad and Tobago Limited
Trinidad and tobago’s premier communications company
Trinidad and Tobago has had telephone service since
1883. The early system consisted of local, battery-
operated phones connected to a magneto switch-
board. By the early 1900s, the government owned all
the phone the lines in the islands’ rural areas and by
1936, there were approximately 6,300 lines in service
throughout the country. In 1949 the first teleprinter
link was established. The British-owned Trinidad Con-
solidated Telephones Limited spurred the growth of
the phone network from the mid 1930s until 1960,
when the Government purchased it and the new com-
pany became the state-owned Trinidad and Tobago
Telephone Service, or TELCO.
In 1969, The Trinidad and Tobago External Telecom-
munications Company Limited (TEXTEL), was incorpo-
rated as a limited liability company - a joint venture
participation, with the Government of Trinidad and
TSTT's BLINK Entertainment service also supports content distribution like
ESPNPlay.com on Tablets and smart phones
