Maple Ridge residents dissatisfied with their wireless internet connection may be seeing improved service as TELUS announced a mega project as part of their COVID-19 economic recovery plan.
Telus is investing a whopping $60 million to provide fibre optic network to Maple Ridge residents and businesses as part of their commitment is to invest $13 billion by 2024.
As the project is underway, several residents told The Ridge that their internet connection has been as tumultuous as the year 2021.
Shannon Para lives on 125th Ave. and Laity Street and only gets 25 MB bandwidth which she says, “is not enough for the whole family to be working and doing school work.” She’s been waiting for fibre connection and said she welcomes the news of this change.
Another resident, Brittany Fairbrother runs a salon on 203rd and Dewdney Rd. and experiences “constant” connectivity issues.
“It interferes with payment from clients to my business, it’s a constant agony! I invested in Sonos equipment to run music for my salon, it obviously runs off Wi-Fi [but] they would constantly get disconnected from music so, I had to get an old school radio [for music] on a regular basis. It’s brutal!” she told The Ridge.
Many other residents echoed the same sentiment. Despite having the highest speed package and having technicians come in their area to ‘fix the problem,’ the poor connection issues continue to persist.
But connectivity isn’t the only issue being flagged.
Residents said they avoid making complaints to TELUS due to ‘long wait hours’ over the phone.
Dan Leigh said he waited for three hours to get support, only to find out the representative was not qualified to resolve the issue.
Darren Entwistle, CEO of TELUS said that this generational investment will help bridge the gap between socioeconomic and geographic barriers.
“This investment will connect citizens to people, resources and information that make their lives better, particularly as we continue to navigate the global pandemic.”
