Better late than never, as the old adage goes.
On Oct. 13, Athabasca County was expecting a delegation from Telus, to discuss cell phone and landline connectivity issues in the county. The meeting that was cancelled when the representative showed up late and county adjourned for the afternoon. The company had cancelled on a previous meeting in August.
However, Brian Bettis, general manager for Telus in Northern Alberta, was able to arrange a meeting with Reeve Doris Splane upon his tardy arrival. He and Splane spoke with the Advocate regarding communication infrastructure upgrades.
In a document provided to Telus and to council members, Splane outlined her concerns and concerns she had heard from her constituents.
“We have asked you here so that you are aware of the discontent in the municipality that we serve and so we can get some answers for the people who have faithfully used your business for many, many years,” Splane’s document said. She also cited an Advocate poll, which found that only nine per cent of Telus customers were happy with their existing services.
In an interview with the Advocate, Splane noted that telecommunications does not normally fall under the municipality’s jurisdiction.
“The reason we’re engaging in this discussion is to help bridge that communication gap between Telus and the ratepayers,” she said.
Bettis said the municipality expressed concerns about cell phone service, wireland or internet services, and the use of offshore call centres.
“What I’ve discovered – maybe there wasn’t as much diligence done specifically in this region historically,” Bettis said, adding that he has been in the role of general manager for the north for about a year.
Bettis said that in March, Telus announced a number of system upgrades, to deploy a recently purchased the 700 megahertz spectrum “that was previously used to do over the air antenna for TV, so like bunny ears.”
Unlike LTE or 3G service, Bettis said the new spectrum can better penetrate areas that have a difficult time receiving coverage, like places with valleys and dense foliage.
“It’s a spectrum specifically targeted at rural municipalities,” Bettis said. “We’ve been deploying that throughout the year. We finished deploying it the last week of September and it is now fully deployed. What would have happened while that deployment was happening is people would have experienced service disruption.”
He added that the challenge with the 700 megahertz spectrum is that customers must have the technology to be able to use it, like an iPhone 6S or 7, or the new Samsung Galaxy phones.
As for new infrastructure, Bettis said plans to install new cell phone towers near Boyle and Athabasca were put on hold due to a capital freeze in 2015. When it came time to re-evaluate the project, he said, it did not make sense to purchase and install new towers until Telus could assess the impact of the spectrum upgrade.
Bettis said he was committed to following up with the county over the next month or so to discuss how to move forward. He will be returning to speak with the full council on Nov. 24.
At that time, Bettis also hopes to address the possibility of improving wireland internet services. He said that fibre optic lines have recently been extended to Westlock, Peace River and Fort McMurray, and it is only a matter of time until that service is also extended to the Athabasca region.
“Now, we’ve got a bit of an open dialogue with Telus to help us understand some of the concerns,” Splane said. “Hopefully, in speaking with (Bettis), we have a greater understanding of some of the challenges they face when they’re coming into this increasing Telus communications infrastructure. Overall, I was encouraged to hear about their long-term plans to increase cellular service in northern Alberta, and I guess I’m comfortable that Telus has assured us that they are actively working on solutions to the whole reduction in services we’ve been experiencing.”
