It's being described as one of the greatest Canadian stories never told.

But this country's role in telecommunications history is about to get a boost through an ambitious undertaking by Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame.

The hall - actually a virtual entity at this point in its early history; it was launched in May 2005 - is initiating the Canadian Telecommunication Chronicles project.

When completed in 2010, the web-based hall of fame will include a new interactive, historical timeline of Canada's telecommunications industry from the 1840s to the present.

Pat Pinotti, IPI Photo
Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame director and founder Lorne Abugov wants the industry's achievements acknowledged.

An exhaustive venture, the goal is to digitize thousands of records and photographs from across the country and compile them so they're accessible and in one location.

"There is such a treasure trove of historical materials describing significant events and achievements in Canadian telecommunications that needs to be safeguarded," says Lorne Abugov, director and founder of Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame (www.telecomhall.ca).

"Currently, the material is scattered across Canada in filing cabinets, in basements and in old telco central offices and we feel the hall of fame is best placed to find the materials, pull them together and work with Canadian museums and institutions to digitize these precious historical artifacts and documents."

This project dovetails with the hall of fame's mission: To celebrate and promote the history of the telecommunications industry in Canada and to honour the pioneers, leaders and unsung heroes of the industry for their contributions.

At the same time, it wants to educate Canadians about this country's telecommunications legacy.

Abugov notes the Canadian railway industry has received a lot of historical interest and attention for its contribution to nation-building.

"By contrast, it's not really the same for telecommunications," he says. "The telegraph was critical to the nation even before Confederation. Then there's Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone in Brantford, Ont., in 1874 - where would the world be without that contribution?

"It goes right on through to the BlackBerry of today (Waterloo's Research In Motion), another Canadian technological breakthrough."

With the Chronicles project, Abugov hopes to provide Canadians with as much information as possible about the role Canada has played in revolutionizing the telecommunications sector.

"We think it will be an invaluable resource for students, researchers and those who, in turn, will go and further chronicle some of the really fascinating untold stories that need to be brought to light about this industry," says Abugov.

Canada has always been recognized as a leader in telecommunications, he adds, noting the country was the first in the world to launch a commercial communications satellite, Anik 1, 36 years ago.

Other historical tidbits include:

* Reginald Fessenden of Quebec was the first man in history to transmit the human voice without wires. "People think it was Marconi, but it was Fessenden," says Abugov. "He made his famous broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1900, to ships at sea without wire."

* Donald Lewes Hings, of Burnaby, B.C., is widely credited as being the inventor of the forerunner of the walkie-talkie. Hings worked for the mining companies in Northern Ontario and his job was to try to develop a means of communication for those in remote locations. By 1937, he built a rudimentary, but effective, portable emergency voice radio.

Both the Chronicles project and the hall of fame are important for the future of the Canadian telecommunications sector, industry officials say.

"We're in an extremely competitive environment - from a Canadian point of view we're a relatively small economy - and we need to compete on this global stage," says Peter Carbone, vice-president of service-oriented architecture (SOA) for Nortel Networks.

"Promoting ICT will drive our competitiveness, and ICT is embedded in almost everything we do."

Nortel, honoured by the hall of fame in 2006 for its role in pioneering digital communications, says reflecting on the industry's accomplishments through the hall of fame is even more crucial today.

"It's a really significant issue, given the bursting of the telecom bubble in the early 2000s," adds Carbone. "Some people were turned off on this sector as a whole.

"Having people encouraged to get into this sector ... is more important than it's ever been."

Telecommunications entrepreneur Michael Kedar agrees the hall and its projects are key to promoting Canada as a telecom sector leader.

"This is not just a resource-rich country, it has excellent people and talent," says Kedar, who was inducted as a hall of fame laureate in 2007 for contributions that include the 1986 launch of Call-Net Telecommunications Ltd.

His company pioneered the alternative telecommunications service provider industry in Canada through its wholly owned resale subsidiary, Sprint Canada (now Rogers).

In the early 1990s, at long-distance regulatory proceedings, Kedar was instrumental in a CRTC decision that ended Bell Canada's and provincial telcos' 100-year long-distance monopoly.

"There are so many aspects of telecommunications and IT that Canadians excel in," adds Kedar. "I think that needs to be promoted."

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)