Editor, The Times:
I recently read the article about high speed or DSL for certain areas of Clearwater and decided that, after almost 40 years with BC Tel/Telus and no longer being part of the Telus “team”, I could provide some perspective and facts regarding the lack of ADSL service to these areas.
This issue has been resurrected from time to time in local media and it has been frustrating to not be able to speak openly (due to the Telus terms of employment) in a community where I have lived for 21 years.
Too often those of the fourth estate (aka the press) have been far too timid when asking pointed questions of Telus about service. Telus will trot out the talking head of the week, give the scripted answer, and the intrepid reporter will report what the Telus spokesperson has said, usually verbatim, and the reader is left with the mistaken impression that the answer is all the truth.
I will have to use some jargon but a quick Google search will point people in the right direction.
When ADSL was first offered in the Clearwater exchange area (674), the first advertised offerings were for 128 Kbps (about twice that of dial-up) and 1.5 Mbps (about the same as a T1). The 1.5, which was the most popular, was offered with the caveat that the customer had to be within five km or three miles from the central office (CO), and the physical copper pair that they were on had to be what is termed as unloaded.
This disqualified all of the Raft River area from about Raft River School and east, all of Greer as well as Candle Creek. The Upper Clearwater area from Greer Road north was also affected. All of Birch Island was disqualified because of the remote switch type in place at the time.
Prior to the rollout of ADSL in Clearwater, Telus had been ordered by the regulator (CRTC) to make private line service available to those that had four-party service (party-line).
The rural upgrade program (RUP) resulted in new switches or remote central offices being installed. One was placed in the Upper Clearwater, one for Greer, one for the Raft River area and another for Birch Island. All of these switches, with the exception of the Upper Clearwater, use fiber optic cable for telephone and related services. This is important.
People in the Raft, Greer and Birch Island areas frequently asked me why they couldn’t have DSL service. I explained that the remote switch type that they were serviced by didn’t have DSL capability.
Some time later we discovered that other areas in B.C. serviced by the same type of remote switch as those in Greer, Raft and Birch Island had DSL service. Those switches could, after all, provide the service as long as certain hardware and traffic transport issues were addressed.
We asked why the three zones in Clearwater couldn’t get the service. This time the reason given was it would be too costly in relation to the small customer base.
Sometime in 2007 I made a last attempt, this time based on the monetary angle. The most recent communication from Telus was that providing the switches in question for DSL would cost in the order of $65,000 each.
Using the Clearwater CO as a base, I took the number of DSL lines in use versus those that didn’t subscribe to the service. The percentage was quite high even in relation to some areas in the Lower Mainland as to the take rate. I then used those numbers and extrapolated them to the number of subscribers working in Raft, Greer and Birch Island. I then subtracted the number of subscribers that didn’t meet the five km criteria. The final numbers were then simply multiplied by the current rates being charged by Telus in 2007 for DSL service. The dollars that would be realized would pay back the initial cost in just less than five years.
I put the information in a letter to the CEO of Telus, Darren Entwistle. The initial response was encouraging. The final response was, in a word, no.
I conclude with information that will hopefully remove barriers.
“The service in these areas doesn’t fit with Telus’ future service requirements or marketing strategy.”
This phrase would apply in a larger centre, not Clearwater. Telus is promoting newer products, mainly their Optik service that incorporates TV along with Internet and phone services. This service would never happen here unless there was a population explosion.
“The equipment already in place, while ADSL capable, is no longer available and sourcing of replacement equipment would be an unfair financial burden to Telus.”
While Telus might not currently install the switch components, the switches in place now are repaired in a timely fashion when required. The electronic cards required can be obtained. Telus does not replace an entire switch unless absolutely necessary. The remote switches in the Barriere area are of an older vintage than those in Clearwater, are not ADSL capable and they are still regularly repaired when needed.
“The return on investment is too long.”
Telus wants a two-year return as opposed to less than five. In a large centre where there are several providers of a similar service that might fly, but not here.
“If we do it here we’d have to do it everywhere.”
This is not part of a major build project or provincial project. Let the other areas make their own case.
I hope that this has clarified some things and can only hope Telus will do the right thing. If they send out the spinmasters you might want to be careful, as it’s liable to give you whiplash.
Larry Borsa
Clearwater, B.C.