{"id":15282,"date":"2019-06-07T08:02:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T15:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?page_id=15282"},"modified":"2019-11-07T05:50:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T12:50:37","slug":"enode-prince-george","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?page_id=15282","title":{"rendered":"eNode – Prince George"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

 <\/p>\n

Faster fibre-optic internet coming to Prince George by way of $150M investment<\/span><\/h2>\n

TELUS upgrade project hopes to connect over 90 per cent of homes, businesses<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jun 6, 2019 12:36 PM by\u00a0Kyle Balzer<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

TELUS investing $150 million for Prince George and surrounding areas for 5G fibre-optic internet speeds by early 2022<\/strong><\/em><\/span> (via Kyle Balzer)<\/p>\n

Faster internet. It\u2019s a thing everyone wants whether it be on the job, watching television, playing games, streaming music, or even to video-conference your doctor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is something a Canadian telecommunications giant\u00a0wants to mitigate over the next three years by investing $150 million for high-speed internet that will span Prince George, Lheidli T\u2019enneh reserves, and northern B.C.<\/p>\n

TELUS\u2019 PureFibre network was introduced this morning (June 6) at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre to local company employees, community members, and politicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a set schedule for the build and that schedule has been working in coordination with city staff,\u201d said Shazia Zeb Sobani, TELUS Vice-President of Customer Network Implementation. \u201cThis is to make sure we\u2019re prioritizing the areas that are most in need for connectivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is ensuring 5G technology by the upgrade\u2019s completion in the early months of 2022<\/strong>, though there is no official timeline for groundwork yet as local terrain and winter weather will be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working the last little while with a lot of local officials residents with the shared vision that we want to make this region the most connected region in all of North America,\u201d Sobani added. \u201cThis will allow us to connect 90 per cent of homes and businesses in Prince George and the Lheidli T\u2019enneh territory. And, at the same time, we\u2019re setting a very strong foundation for future technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expansion and upgrades will specifically reach as far as the north side of the Lheidli T\u2019enneh First Nation\u2019s Fort George 2 reserve, much to the delight of Chief Clay Pountney.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building a better world for everybody and that includes our nation,\u201d said Chief Pountney. \u201cJust this year, we\u2019ve hosted two live podcasts for some of our events and that wouldn\u2019t be possible without high-speed internet. Our members living elsewhere have been very appreciative of watching our broadcasts on laptops and mobiles using the high-speed service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Lyn Hall spoke about public safety with the investment, which will also eclipse $350 million in northern B.C. fibre-optic upgrades by TELUS since 2013, explaining having high-speed connectivity is important to the city, especially when it becomes a hub for displaced residents by natural disasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat amount of money and that technology that\u2019s being introduced into our community really helps us. In 2017 and 2018, we had horrific events where we had about 13,000 evacuees come to our city [via wildfires]. One of the things we struggled with is communication to the outlying areas to notify them or to wildfire services in B.C. that they had to evacuate. This is a huge piece of the puzzle for us now when it comes to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collaboration with the B.C. government also came into play with the decision for TELUS to expand its services as Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond touched on the region\u2019s competitive market in the province.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt translates to jobs and it translates to growing the economy,\u201d she said, while also adding TELUS\u2019 generosity to give to where they live including the northern capital. \u201cThis is the tool we need to do that. It gives us a great deal of hope for us as residents of northern British Columbia. I love it when we can say that going to be equal or, much-preferred better, than the lower mainland of B.C.; that always makes me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

According to TELUS, the groundwork will include employees going door-to-door explaining its plan to local residents that will be affected by the upgrade.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While nothing is in stone yet, the possibility of a community newsletter from the company updating customers on when their area is complete was discussed at the Civic Centre.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.princegeorgematters.com\/local-news\/faster-fibre-optic-internet-coming-to-prince-george-by-way-of-150m-investment-1493897<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Faster fibre-optic internet coming to Prince George by way of $150M investment TELUS upgrade project hopes to connect over 90 per cent of homes, businesses Jun 6, 2019 12:36 PM by\u00a0Kyle Balzer TELUS investing $150 million for Prince George and surrounding areas for 5G fibre-optic internet speeds by early 2022 (via Kyle Balzer) Faster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":11975,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-nosidebar.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15282","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15282"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15984,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15282\/revisions\/15984"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}