The New Brunswick Telephone Company, Limited (operating as NBTel) was a telecommunications company that operated in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The company was founded in 1888 after Bell Telephone Company of Canada's attempt to establish telephone service in the Maritimes failed and purchased Bell Canada's New Brunswick assets in 1889. In 1973, NBTel purchased the last independent telephone operator in New Brunswick, giving it a monopoly for telephone service in the province.[2] In 1924, the company built a telephone exchange in Sackville, New Brunswick. An extension was made in 1961 in order to house more equipment. Two years later, the building was sold to the Maritime Conference of the United Church of Canada.[3] Owned by holding company Bruncor, which Bell Canada gained a controlling interest in during the 1960s, NBTel was based in Saint John, New Brunswick, until its merger with the other Stentor Alliance companies in Atlantic Canada to form Aliant in 1999. In 2006, it is now known as Bell Aliant.