Why does a small town receive better speeds than a large city?

[livingdeadgirl]

I live in the Capital City of Alberta, and I can only get Internet 15. I have friends in Barrhead and Legal who get speeds of 50. Why do they get better internet when I am much closer to the servers? Seems very lazy to me. You guys have terrible customer service along with your poor service providing. The future is rarely friendly with Telus. When can I have internet 50? I want a date. 

[WestCoasterBC · Accepted solution]

If only Internet 15 (copper) is available the infrastructure has not been upgraded in your area yet.

Telus is aggressively expanding their Fibre optic across Alberta and BC but it takes time. Working in major cities things take considerable time and planning.

[NFtoBC]

Small towns are often easier because the build is smaller, competition is lower, Telus can scoop all or most of the high speed business, and often right-of-ways are clearer, and the greater number of single family dwellings allows faster installation, as the homeowner is the only individual Telus needs to engage.

Once Fibre is installed, the top level speed is determined by the equipment at the telco office. Many locations are now offering 250 Mbps, where initially the offered maximum of 100.

Since the participants here are customers, just like you are, we have no insight to Telus infrastructure timelines.

[Xerise]

You could also try call in to customer service and see if there is anything they can do to give you faster speeds where you are. Sometimes there is, though apartment buildings are often limited.

You can also check the Telus website and try click a higher one to see if you qualify for anything higher too. Here's the link for the website:

www.telus.com/en/ab/internet

I live in Edmonton in a townhouse and can get 100. I'm just waiting for fibre to come to my neighborhood so I can upgrade to 150. They are doing a massive push for their fibre network and you can keep checking at their fibre site to see if you'll qualify. That's what I keep doing! Here's the link for that:

www.telus.com/en/ab/internet/fibre

[EbertsR]

Besides the discrepancy between metro cities and smaller communities, what really baffles me is why Telus has 56 communities in British Columbia with PureFibre, while Alberta currently sits with just 26. Well over 200% more communities served in BC compared to Alberta, yet in terms of population BC has 4.6 million compared to Alberta's 4.1 million; put another way, Alberta has 89% the population of BC, but only 46% of the PureFibre communities.

Come on Telus! 

[NFtoBC]

Part of the reason may be age of infrastructure. Trail, BC was an early install because of aging infrastructure, and damage caused by climate. It was cost effective to install fibre, rather than continue to repair copper. The explosive growth in many Alberta communities has meant the base infrastructure is newer. Also, in locations where utilities are underground, pulling fibre is more expensive, and slower.