Gosfield North Communications was founded by local politicians and community leaders to provide phone service to the municipality. The new telecommunication service was entirely subscriber-owned.
Over the years, Gosfield North Communications grew in popularity and established a free telephone exchange with the town of Essex.
Gosfield’s subscriber base had grown substantially and a line connecting Gosfield and Leamington was built.
Gosfield North Communications was thriving, but in the winter of 1934, a devastating ice storm hit the region and destroyed most of Gosfield’s telephone lines. This was a setback for Gosfield but despite the amount of damage done, all of the lines were quickly replaced and put back into service.
The township office was packed to overflowing with constituents debating converting the Gosfield telephone system from magneto to rotary dial. In the end, the decision was made to convert to the new technology.
Northern Electric was contracted to begin implementing the new state of the art dial telephone system and the cost of the new system totaled $150,000. The money for the new system was raised with help from the community.
Finally, after years of waiting and anticipation, the new dial telephone system was complete and operator Annie Gregg had the honour of patching through the last magneto call just before 2:00AM on 20 September.
By this time the improvement included miles of underground cable, a new building, and dial equipment. Subscribers of this new township-owned dial system were now able to enjoy toll-free service to Essex, Kingsville, Leamington, Belle River, Pleasant Park, and Woodslee.
Gosfield needed new office space and so an addition to the main building was built to make room for new full-time office employees.
Gosfield North Communications made another step forward as the dial system was converted to digital switching which allowed Gosfield to support and handle digital signals.
The subscriber-owned telecommunications company became a co-operative.
Gosfield North Communications entered the 21st century by introducing internet services to its subscribers.
Technological advancements at Gosfield were made as they began to offer television services
Gosfield made history as the first internet service provider in Canada to offer 1Gbps service over fibre.
Over the years, Gosfield North, being the only independent telecommunications co-operative in Essex county, has consistently innovated and adapted to changing times to provide residents and businesses with the best service technology can offer.
Today, these industry leading advancements have allowed Gosfield to expand into neighbouring communities to provide some of the best service to be found in Canada.
