Every British Columbian community with 1,000 residents or more now enjoys TELUS’ lightning-fast wireless service

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TELUS is celebrating the significant milestone of bringing wireless connectivity to every community in British Columbia with a population of 1,000 people or more. With a wireless connection, small businesses can thrive and compete both locally and globally, families can stay connected to loved ones who live out of town, young people can stay in their hometowns longer and participate in distance education, and perhaps most critically, a wireless connection provides a lifeline to call for help in the event of an emergency. This milestone was reached after TELUS brought wireless service to the communities of Gold River on Vancouver Island, and Ahousaht off the coast of Tofino. 

“As a global leader in the communications and information technology industry, TELUS is proud to consistently invest in critical network infrastructure that will enhance the quality of life for our citizens and propel the competitiveness of our country,” said Darren Entwistle, TELUS President and CEO. “Achieving this milestone is a testament to our team’s commitment to leverage our world-leading technology to improve the lives of Canadians from coast to coast. Indeed, these investments will ensure that British Columbians have access to the tools, resources and information that matter most, bringing social, educational, health and economic benefits to the most rural parts of our vast nation. By bridging these geographical and digital divides, we are enabling the circumstances for entrepreneurs to start new businesses in remote or rural communities, and for young people to live where they choose across our beautiful province without sacrificing connectivity or economic opportunity. Our team shares the provincial government’s vision of connecting all British Columbians to ensure they can realize their full potential, and looks forward to further collaboration with the government to bring additional coverage to even more remote communities across B.C. in the future.”

TELUS is committed to continuing to connect communities with smaller populations, including the communities of Port Clements, Hazelton, and New Denver that are all served by TELUS wireless sites. More than 99 per cent of British Columbians have access to TELUS’ 4G LTE network, which has earned global recognition as the best network in Canada from third party organizations. Just this week, TELUS announced it has been recognized as the best network in Canada for 4G Wireless Availability, Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Latency Experience, and Upload Speed Experience in Opensignal’s Canada: Mobile Network Experience Report, in addition to earning 2019 Fastest Mobile Network and Best Mobile Coverage Speedtest Awards™ in Canada from Seattle-based Ookla® for Q3-Q4 2019.

In 2019, TELUS was recognized by industry-leading experts, including Opensignal, Ookla, J.D. Power, PCMag, and Tutela, building on an outstanding record of achievement with respect to network excellence, having earned the top spot in four out of five of the major mobile network reporting for the third consecutive year in a row or more. Notably, these awards are based on TELUS’ national networks, inclusive of both urban and rural coverage. This connectivity milestone includes the following communities with less than 1,500 residents: Puntledge, Crofton, Lumby, Telkwa, Fairwinds, Salmo, Nakusp, Miller’s Landing, Ashcroft, Canoe, and Cultus Lake.

A recent Opensignal report found that if rural Canada was its own country, it would rank 12th in the world in respect to wireless download speeds, with rural Canadian users on average experiencing faster 4G speeds than users in the United States, Sweden, New Zealand, and France. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports, Canada has amongst the highest per-capita investment in network infrastructure on the planet, and leads the world on network speed, quality and coverage. TELUS invests billions of dollars a year to bring new and enhanced connectivity to communities across Canada, in addition to the billions it must spend to purchase spectrum from the federal government to maintain the wireless capacity required to serve the increasing demand of consumers in British Columbia and across Canada.

Currently, British Columbia is the only Canadian province that has access to the Babylon by TELUS Health service’s direct one-on-one virtual doctor consultation feature, enabling residents to speak with a B.C.-licensed physician at their convenience from their smartphone. More than 800,000 British Columbians do not have a family doctor, making the Babylon by TELUS Health service critical to helping more residents access quality care and communicate with healthcare professionals. This easy-to-use free service is available through a mobile app that connects British Columbians to healthcare support seven days a week including evenings, weekends and holidays. Users have the ability to book an appointment online and visit with a doctor, and have prescriptions sent to the users’ preferred pharmacy for easy pick-up. The cost of the video consultation is covered by the patient’s provincial MSP.

TELUS serves 178 of B.C.'s 203 Indigenous communities with wireless and broadband wireline technologies, and has collaborated with 46 Indigenous Governments to bring TELUS PureFibre to their communities, including 12 in collaboration with the All Nations Trust Company’s Pathways to Technology program.

TELUS’ has committed to invest $4.7 billion throughout British Columbia between 2017 and 2020, at no cost to taxpayers. For more information about TELUS’ commitment to serving First Nations communities, please click here.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is a dynamic, world-leading communications and information technology company with $14.7 billion in annual revenue and 15.2 million customer connections spanning wireless, data, IP, voice, television, entertainment, video and security. We leverage our global-leading technology to enable remarkable human outcomes. Our longstanding commitment to putting our customers first fuels every aspect of our business, making us a distinct leader in customer service excellence and loyalty. TELUS Health is Canada's largest healthcare IT provider, and TELUS International delivers the most innovative business process solutions to some of the world’s most established brands.

Driven by our passionate social purpose to connect all Canadians for good, our deeply meaningful and enduring philosophy to give where we live has inspired our team members and retirees to contribute more than $700 million and 1.3 million days of service since 2000. This unprecedented generosity and unparalleled volunteerism have made TELUS the most giving company in the world.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com, follow us @TELUSNews on Twitter and @Darren_Entwistle on Instagram.

For media inquiries, please contact:

TELUS Media Relations
Liz Sauvé
[email protected]