TDG has been involved in a variety of projects and activities to strengthen the link between telecommunications and rural development throughout Canada. Some of our highlights include:

TDG has played an integral role in establishing on-line community access to the Internet in rural Ontario and throughout the world, beginning in 1993 with the creation of the Wellington Free Space, a community Internet network serving Wellington County. This network encouraged local service organizations to work together to promote their presence and their involvement in their communities, while at the same time sponsoring an affordable, community-based Internet company to serve all citizens. This experience helped develop a model for community access, which was later presented to other interested international groups and organizations.

TDG helped bring together stakeholders from throughout rural Ontario for informal discussions of their telecommunication needs and the barriers they experienced owing to the existing telecom infrastructure throughout rural Ontario. The efforts of this group were greatly assisted by the inclusion of key individuals at Bell Canada in these discussions. After two years of consultations and discussions, this lobbying group succeeded in raising Bell's awareness of the need for improved telephone service to their rural customers. The outcome of these discussions was Bell Canada's commitment to invest approximately $200 million towards upgrading rural Ontario and Quebec’s telephone services and infrastructure.