When will we finally get optik? does Telus even care?

[philziegs]

Why does Telus refuse to value it's small town clients? I live in Killam, AB and we have fibre optic lines running through our town from back when Alberta Government did it's infrastructure upgrades. All Telus needs to do is tap onto it and feed the lines to residential customers. Myself and many other I know are craving to get better internet and optik TV but because we are only 1000 people, Telus couldn't give a rats behind about us. They keep pumping up city speeds to astronomical numbers while we are still lucky to get 15 mbps at an insanely overpriced rate with a stupidly low data cap and satelite TV that is apparently likely to be cancelled once Telus' agreement with Bell lapses.

I want to give Telus business, and I want optik very badly, but the last 4 years of "it is coming to you soon" is getting very old very quickly, it's pathetic that unless you live in a city worthy of their attention, Telus doesn't care and won't give you half decent services. Ive talked to multiple customer service reps and apparently some supervisors who said our town was "on the list for upgrades".....all we got was a DSL upgrade from a unstable/unreliable 5mbps to a better 15 mbps, it was a start, but its nothing compared to what urban centers get....we may be small town folk, but we are still people and still want to have speeds capable of meeting our needs as well.

Does anyone else have the same frustration?

[Nighthawk · Accepted solution]

I realize waiting can be frustrating but living in a small, remote, town has its limitations are you are already aware. Getting everyone in town to request fibre is a good first step. Getting the town council, or chambre of commerce or whatever local governing body you have, to get involved will help too.

Telus has run fibre in a number of small towns but there are limitations on how fast they can expand. There are only so many fibre installers and the associated specialized equipment out there so that is one big limiting factor. Winter is another factor. It's not that Telus doesn't want to install fibre, it just takes time to do it.

As for the Alberta Supernet, it was installed for when a local ISP wants to set up shop and offer service, not Telus or Shaw. There is no local ISP in Killam so you're out of luck for now. Other Alberta communities have set their own service up.

Wikipedia:

Since Alberta SuperNet was not intended to serve as a last mile network, its success in bridging the rural-urban digital divide depends on private ISPs to connect rural homes and businesses to SuperNet. In many rural communities these services have been slow to develop due to the lack of a clear business case or economic incentive, resulting in criticism of this aspect of the SuperNet model.

[philziegs]

"I realize waiting can be frustrating but living in a small, remote, town has its limitations are you are already aware" - yup, its also the constant promise 'it is coming soon' which is utter non-sense

"Getting everyone in town to request fibreis a good first step. Getting the town council, or chambre of commerce or whatever local governing body you have, to get involved will help too" - simply not feasible, the town is only 1,000 people and some of that will include children and two people in one house, so already you are likely down to maybe 300 households at most, even if you had an astounding 80% response rate for that, you would only have 240 people requesting Optik. You can not honestly tell me (with a straight face) that Telus would even take notice of that.

"Telus has run fibre in a number of small towns but there are limitations on how fast they can expand. There are only so many fibre installers and the associated specialized equipment out there so that is one big limiting factor. Winter is another factor. It's not that Telus doesn't want to install fibre, it just takes time to do it" - exactly, bigger population small towns such as Wetaskiwin, Camrose and such. The limitations I am well aware of and it is largely based on how little they want to pay fibre installers, I know people personally who work in the industry and say that Telus pays so low that often it will barely cover their cost of business so most contractors won't even take the bids. The argument that it takes time is also void in that they are constantly upgrading the service in existing areas, so as I said: they can do it, they choose not to because we don't make enough money.

"As for the Alberta Supernet, it was installed for when a local ISP wants to set up shop and offer service, not Telus or Shaw. There is no local ISP in Killam so you're out of luck for now. Other Alberta communities have set their own service up." - So why can Telus not tap into it the same way?  I know local communities do that.  Olds, AB is a prime example (where I grew up) they got fed up and decided to invest (a TON of money for a small town) into setting up their own, they are 10X the size of my town, this is simply not possible.

As for the wikipedia post I draw your attention to the following : "...services have been slow to develop due to the lack of a clear business case or economic incentive..." - Exactly as I said  MONEY, it is not fiscally possible for small towns to put in their own internet, and corporations like telus prefer to overcharge for under-powered products because they can do so an are not incentivized to improve due to lack of competition. 

So like I said, Telus does not care at all about you unless your community brings in the $$$ for their bottom line.

[NFtoBC]

While I can't speak for Alberta, there are many small communities in BC with local companies offering Internet services connected to Fibre backbone. There are innumerable WISP operations, and places like Cultus Lake, Riondel, Yahk and Elko BC or Codroy, NL have high speed internet. All these places have far smaller populations than your town.

Further, the Federal Government does not expect that the major providers will be filling the void for high speed in small communities. They have been funding a great number of small enterprises to provide high speed internet services in small communities across Canada.  If the value is there in your community, someone will fill the void, be it Telus, or another ISP as has happened in Morden Manitoba.

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@philziegswrote:

So like I said, Telus does not care at all about you unless your community brings in the $$$ for their bottom line.

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Exactly right. They are not a non-profit or a charity. They need to have a business case to move forward.