Highway Cell Service Improvements On The Way
Sunday, October 27, 2013 @ 4:31 AM
(Power line runs up to new Telus cell tower north of Prince George. 250 News photos- Jim Clefstad)
Prince George, B.C. – Residents in the Summit Lake area will be among the beneficiaries of work now underway to expand Telus cell service in northern BC.
Telus spokesperson Liz Sauve in Vancouver tells 250 News that the project is part of an agreement with the provincial
government, the Connecting British Columbia agreement, which was signed in 2011. “Under this contract with the province, Telus is going to connect over 1700 kilometers of highway across BC with wireless service” in areas identified as most in need of that service. “The main objective of this agreement is to enhance the safety of travel along B.C.’s highways for both residents and tourists alike.”
Sauve says three cell towers are being installed in the vicinity of Highway 97 in the first 60 kilometers north of the Prince George city limits. She says “We’re still in the pretty early stages of this project. There is quite a bit of hard work that goes into putting these things up.” Power lines have been run into the three sites and two of the towers are already in place.
As far as a timeline goes for putting the new towers into operation, Sauve says “right now the team is projecting end of this year, early next year. We are getting into some challenging weather fairly soon so we don’t want to make a promise that we can’t keep if our crews can’t safely get in there to finish the work. But later this year or early next year is what we’re looking at now.” She calls the addition of the towers great news for the area.
Its expected the addition of the towers could also improve internet reliability for customers living in the Summit Lake area. Sauve says “the priority (of the project) is enhancing the safety of travel on our highways, but sometimes what does happen, and what is really fortunate, is if there is a community nearby where one of the towers is located, the community will see an increased level of service. When the towers are “live” and we can see exactly where the coverage map goes, we’ll have a better idea of that.”
An aside to our story. In the past week a piece of equipment related to this project was stolen from one of the sites, and police were out speaking with residents of the area in efforts to get information about the theft. As well workers said there had also been an attempt to break into the base building beneath one of the new towers.
For those reasons we are not publishing the locations of these new towers.
Comments
Good news.
This must mean cell service at Salmon Valley. 20 Miles out of town. May wonders never cease.
When your phone bill goes up next month, at least you’ll know why! :-)
The cost is staggering for the installation of cell towers when it was first announced several yrs ago and the eventual goal is to have all 3 major highways have uninterrupted cell service from border to border.
Each tower will cost between $250-350,000 to build and just for cell service between PG and Quesnel 12-17 towers would need to be built That would cost a pretty penny. Multiply that several dozen times and to have service in the north would cost millions of dollars
I wonder why they can’t have it every 50km until such time as they can have it continuous?
It will be great to have service north of Salmon Valley, especially for places like Bear Lake and McLeod Lake. Currently the only place with cell service North of Salmon Valley in PG all the way to Chetwynd is for a few km for text only at the Mackenzie Junction.
It would be nice to have emergency service at Powder King, Pine rest stop, and such. Places along the way where a person could phone in a major accident or avalanche. Same thing in the North Rockies where help is very far away if anything goes awry.
Improved service in college heights would be nice. Hello telus, anyone listening
“That the number of emergency phone booths be placed along the the highway at strategic locations between the Cities of Prince George and Prince Rupert, British Columbia”
“The distance between the towns, cities, and First Nation communities exceed 100 ams. in some places long this highway. There are many stretches of the highway where cellular phones are out of transmission range. Should a potential victim’s car breakdown, or a hitchhiker be seen getting into a vehicle, or car accident be witnessed, it is vital that motorists, and the hitchhikers themselves, have closer access to a form of emergency communication.”
“Telus Mobility should be approached to look into the feasibility of increasing cell phone coverage along the entire length of the highway this minimizing, or eliminating, no signal areas.” ~ Highway of Tears Symposium Recommendations Report, 2006, Page 22.
Dearth
12-17 towers between PG to Quesnel? Whoa. It already works just about all the way.
250 to 350 thousand a tower is just peanuts compared to what they charge us.
The towers up at Tabor Mountain are so old and outdated as I understand that there aren’t even close to 3G
Service improvements are easy. How much more are you willing to pay to get them?
If you need a phone so bad sat phones aren’t as expensive as they used to be. My gosh how did we manage in the old days!
What I find hard to believe, is that there are people out there who seem to live to steal. Just can’t figure out this mentality.
What do you mean NoWay… we manage without today, much less yesterday. I am sure one day I could need it as well… I just think with the amount we pay for cell service in Canada it would be nice if it was available in places along the highway.
I know myself I came across three major accidents over the winter last winter. No repeater coverage, and no cell coverage meant at least another hours delay in calling for help in situations that very well could have been life or death for those that were in need. I always just thought if it was one of my family members…. In two of the cases it was senior citizens.
When its thirty below and no vehicle to keep warm and one is dealing with trauma… time is of the essence.
Had an old couple go off the road right into the Pine River on their way to Arizona for a holiday last February. Truck in front of me a half hour (a senior citizen himself) that saw the whole thing had to do a river rescue on his own, and then we had to flag down four wheelers to give them a ride to Chetwynd and call a tow truck out to recover the car. Cell coverage certainly would have been nice in that situation.
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