Christopher Allsop

I have been in the telecommunications industry since 1998 when I started selling mobile phones, and before that I was an amateur radio operator. But my interest in in telecom is rooted in my dad’s work history. He was a Product and Project manager for the company that was known as CNCP Telecommunications, then Unitel, and then AT&T Canada before he retired. In addition, he too was a Ham radio operator since the 1960′s. His love of technology and electronic communications is what fuelled my interest in pursuing the field I’m in now.

It has been 10 years since my dad passed away. I still miss him, and on many occasions wish he was around to help me with my business.

 

Instead of focusing on his absence though, I thought it would be best to take this opportunity to reflect a little bit on his connections to telecommunications, both professionally and personally.

 

One of the most ironic memories I have of my dad and his work is me constantly asking him “What do you do at work?” Other dad’s worked in shops, drove trucks or buses, helped people, or had careers that you could easily define. When I was young, I had no idea what my dad did at his job, except he went, sat at a desk and came home. It wasn’t until later on in life that I learned more about what he did that I begin to appreciate his contribution to the field of telecommunications in Canada.

 

In his early years working for CN Telecommunications, he travelled across the country from coast to coast, including the far north, setting up microwave sites to send data communications across the country. (As a child, the only microwave I would have known was the one that heated my food, so I really didn’t understand what he was doing!)

 

He helped maintain communications sites along the Pinetree Line, a line of Radar sites monitoring potential threats during Cold War era. He also worked on several other radar and microwave sites with the military ranging from the Yukon to the Maritimes. (That’s where he met my Mom!)

 

Moving on in his career, he was once featured in a series of advertisements for CNCP in the early 1980′s and later went to pen a chapter in a book detailing early forms of email and document sharing in a business world just starting to accept digital communications.

 

He worked closely with the Canadian government to train Members of Parliament in the House of Commons on the new digital communications system that were being rolled out to them during the 1980′s.

 

While his name will not be found in any major texts detailing the rise of the internet revolution, nor did he invent any groundbreaking technologies that we use to communicate, his contribution to establishing a digital link across a country that was once described as having more geography than history is significant. The microwave network that connects Canada from coast to coast helped keep our nation connected and unified. It has a place in the history books just like the Trans-Canada highway or the railway lines which linked the provinces.

 

Along with his professional life in telecom, he was dedicated to amateur radio and promoted it as one of the head instructors at his Radio club, where he inspired many to pursue the hobby and helped them get their radio license.

 

Its easy to see where my love for telecom comes from and why I enjoy helping people stay connected.

 

I feel proud that I am in this industry. I feel proud that I followed in my dad’s path by joining the telecom industry, but I also am proud that I have branched out on my own by starting my own company in the same field.

 

I still miss him, but through my work and through my interest in Amateur radio, I still feel connected to him.