TELUS is investing $4.5 million in Williams Lake in 2012 to further expand and enhance wireless and wireline networks in the city and to bring advanced wireless and wireline broadband to the nearby rural communities of Canoe Creek and Beaver Valley.
“We did a similar investment last year and are continuing this year. It’s part of a $3 billion investment over three years across B.C.” says Shawn Hall of TELUS media relations.
In Williams Lake customers can expect to see faster Internet speeds in more neighbourhoods, more wireless capacity, and more wireless coverage because more antennas are being added to existing sites and new wireless sites are being added.
“We are increasing capacity to keep up with explosive demand for wireless broadband services,” Hall says and explains the upgrade includes miles and miles of additional fibre optic cable being installed in the city.
The number of people using Smart Phones from TELUS has almost doubled in the last year and Williams Lake is keeping up to that trend.
To make sure the company is one step ahead of that trend, it is adding the additional capacity.
The work in rural communities, Hall suggests, will help bridge the digital divide more and more in 2012, building on the work already completed in previous years.
“These are big projects. On average it costs us about $650,000 to connect one remote community. It requires a lot of engineering work and a lot of ingenuity. Year after year we’re connecting more and more remote communities,” Hall says.
There won’t be any interruption of existing service; all people might notice is an increase in Internet speed.
There are 70 TELUS employees serving the Williams Lake area, mostly technical staff, says Hall.