Way behind in comparison with other centers

That is the challenge of living in a place with mountains. Out on the prairies one cell site can easily cover 30 km's in all directions. In BC, due to mountains, you can be lucky to get 5 - 10 km's at a time, and much rougher terrain to install the site.

I don't blame Telus at all for this, just makes economic sense to cover the areas that they have covered and when they have a viable economic model to cover other areas they do.

Rogers coverage is a laugh, sure don't see any pressure on them to expand and cover more of the province. Bell just lives off the Telus equipment, so usually wherever there is Telus there will be Bell.

I would like to see a landline provider besides Telus in Prince George....I would be first in line to abandon a non-caring telephone company...Telus in my opinion is confident that no on will give them competion...they are probably right....after all we are beyond HOPE

Satelite phones, there's a laugh. Satelite service is realy bad. If analog equipment is old and can't be maintained it is nothing compared to how old satelites must be. I am positive Sat phones are using Morse Code bounced off the Sputnik, that's how bad it is.

Forget about the babble of mountains etc. these clowns don't have reliable signals for cell phones within the boundaries of the city of Prince George. Telus has shareholders, who expect a profit every quarter, that is what drives the corporation, not service to customers.
metalman.

I am sure if there was an alternate choice for land lines that the shareholders in TELUS would not be making the money they are now!
No cutomers , no income, no shareholders, not in tbusiness...
aw! that would break my heart...
NOT!

We travel a lot and Telus is the worst cell service I have found anywhere period!
As an example of what they could have, I have been in the middle of nowhere in Montana and Wyoming and still had good cell service in most places!
Just takes some bucks and a bit of effort!
I really don't think Telus really gives a damn!

Andy (and others), this is the price we pay for living in a huge province with a relatively low population.

The reason the US has better cell coverage is simple. They're dealing with a smaller geographical area and have 10 times the population (10 times the customer base).

Where are the bucks going to come from to improve service? That's right, our pockets. Would you be willing to pay many times what you currently do to install and maintain the extra towers? Not to mention that we'd need a lot more towers to cover our mountainous terrain. Unfortuantely, that's what it comes down to. Dollars and cents.

I'd love to see better cell coverage on our highways, but the economics don't add up. To expect that Telus is just going to come up with some money somehow to improve coverage is naive.

Sorry MrPG your logic has no place here. It is clearly more fun to whine about 'evil corporations' and 'filthy profits' etc.

Please keep that in mind for future postings.

Noted, rayban. I guess it is more fun for some to rant about that kind of stuff.

"I would like to see a landline provider besides Telus in Prince George....I would be first in line to abandon a non-caring telephone company...Telus in my opinion is confident that no on will give them competion...they are probably right....after all we are beyond HOPE"

Shaw Cable's phone service is available almost everyplace else. I wonder when they're going to launch it here...my friends have it in the lower mainland and say it works well.

I have a Vonage phone. It works well, and is way less expensive. $29.95 a month, with all the bells and whistles. I haven't used Telus for years, and have no intention of ever using them again. I have Rogers for my cell service.

A few dead spots here and there, who cares. I'm from the school where, we didn't have cells or answering machines. We just had a good old rotary dialed phone. Life was simple, and the stress level was way down!! My God, can't you go without your damn phone from here to McBride. Deal with it!

What about Rogers setting up servicein this area?

Point taken Mr.PG, but if you have ever driven across Montana or Wyoming,your cell phone would still work and there ain't nobody out there for many,many, miles!
I am sure the fact that it is fairly flat country down there helps,but if you drive to Prince Rupert from PG,the only place your cell will work is mostly when you are either in,or close to one of the towns along the way.
I still think Telus is cheaping out!
It is to their advantage to improve service.
Build it and they will come!

Again, Andy, the US has 10 times our population, so the phone companies can afford to spend money on the 'less' populated areas, because their populated areas make up the difference. How big is Montana compared to BC?

'Build it and they will come' is a great phrase, but who will come? And who will pay for the increased costs in the meantime?

If Telus (or anybody else) could make it work, they would be doing it.

Well I'm not sure if the average reader knows but there is communication systems that easily run through entire province through Pine Pass and everywhere else without hitch. Mind you they're private systems that are use and maintained by big companies like CN and BC Hydro but they do exist. So it can be done
Like "Metalman" said before Telus is in it for the almighty dollar! A half million to a million to put in a tower?? Just like it costs you how much to put in new service from BC Hydro per pole.
The only way you will see improvement is if the tax payer pays to put towers up, hmmm just like how the government paid to give every remote community internet access.
It's bad enough the amount Telus charges for land lines! Considering most of the equipment was paid for by the taxpayers before they were privatized.
Competition bring it on! We need something else in PG other than the choice of a VOIP provider, it works great until the internet bogs down and your converstaion has a 5 to 10 second delay.

or until the power goes out ASKRIK. Then no telephone...
We could use another competitor for Telus...
I can't see it happening as there really isn't the client base here to make it viable....and I think Telus counts on that..

What I posted above still holds, but: Another viewpoint; We may not like their fees and charges, but Telus does provide a reliable landline service to most areas of B.C and Alberta, and their cel. phone service is quite reliable in the major centers. I know that (corporately) they place great importance on maintaining that service at all times, with no interupptions. We do not see it, but they are continually improving and upgrading their facilities and equipment to try and stay up with, or ahead of, the demand for communications. THere will always be things to complain about, but, we are fortunate to have it this good, I think.
metalman.

Telus and the former BCTEL was never a crown corporation or owned by the government. It has always been a private company. So the mention above about getting all the equipment after it had been purchased for them is not really correct.

The thing about the BCHydro network is that it is PTT ( push to talk ) and in many ways, only one person can use it per region at a time, and everyone gets to listen in to what you are saying. So therefore the technology is less than what is required to run a cell phone and therefore much cheaper.