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Telus to Spend $1 Billion on 'Gigabit' (150 Mbps) in Vancouver

Not to be outdone by Rogers' gigabit broadband plans, Telus has announced that the Canadian ISP is spending $1 billion to bring gigabit connectivity to Vancouver. Well, kind of. According to a company announcement, the investment will allow 400,000 homes, businesses, hospitals, community centers and municipal offices to be connected to the company's fiber network over the next five years.

But by "gigabit," the press release makes it clear that Telus actually means around 150 Mbps at first.

"When the first Vancouver neighbourhoods are fully connected early next year local residents and businesses will be able to take advantage of home Internet speeds of up to 150 megabits per second," states the gigabit-reference-heavy press release. "TELUS plans to offer families and businesses in Vancouver increasingly higher speeds over this gigabit-enabled network in the coming years, as demand continues to increase."

Announcing you're deploying gigabit speeds without actually offering gigabit speeds (or only offering it to a select few locations) is what we affectionately refer to as "fiber to the press release." Still, fiber is fiber, and that's certainly an improvement for impacted users.

"Bringing fibre optic infrastructure directly to homes and businesses is a generational investment, and the most significant contribution our organization can make to propel Canada's communications infrastructure and ensure its global competitiveness for decades to come," states Telus CEO Darren Entwistle.
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HeadSpinning
MNSi Internet
join:2005-05-29
Windsor, ON

HeadSpinning

Member

Perhaps they should have said

"Gigabit Capable" network. They will of course turn up the speeds as time goes on.
ohreally
join:2014-11-21

ohreally

Member

I don't see the problem

They're saying they're doing fibre to the premises and that it is capable of gigabit.

That's still quite admirable, from an incumbent telco. Others aren't even trying to do FTTP.

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

2 recommendations

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: I don't see the problem

You see no problem with a press release claiming to make Vancouver gigabit capable then only offering 150 Mbps?
ohreally
join:2014-11-21

-1 recommendation

ohreally

Member

Re: I don't see the problem

Not really, because "gigabit capable" implies that the network they are building is... capable of a gigabit.

If they'd said "gigabit network" and then offered 150Mbps it'd be different.

I'm just finding it hard to criticise a telco that is installing actually future proof infrastructure rather than pursuing VDSL or G.FAST or some other hack

The key thing for me is that they are doing fibre to the premises. "FTTPR" to me suggests that they're promising a rollout that they won't actually do, or promising something that isn't ever capable of high speeds.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

Re: I don't see the problem

said by ohreally:

gigabit capable" implies that the network they are building is... capable of a gigabit.

If they'd said "gigabit network" and then offered 150Mbps it'd be different.

If you read the press release the "gigabit" availability is years away, the network may be capable but 150m appears to be all that will offered. the other part is the city alone is more than 600,000 people and the greater metro area about 2.5 million, yet this plan says 400k will be served.
they have invested a huge amount to get to this point, so I can't see rates being really cheap.

rebus9
join:2002-03-26
Tampa Bay

2 recommendations

rebus9 to Karl Bode

Member

to Karl Bode
said by Karl Bode:

You see no problem with a press release claiming to make Vancouver gigabit capable then only offering 150 Mbps?

+1

These press releases are nothing more than "gigabit selfies".

They want to "be seen" with gigabit, without actually having to DO gigabit.
jmiller
join:2013-06-25
Minneapolis, MN

1 recommendation

jmiller

Member

FTTP

It's FTTP. Fiber To The Press.
Windfarmer
daeligt kaeligps no mr
join:2015-08-30

Windfarmer

Member

Re: FTTP

lol
pb2k
join:2005-05-30
Calgary, AB

pb2k

Member

FTTPr

Telus is an ISP that can do simple math. Some oversubscription is manageable, but offering gigabit In the access layer to everyone just moves the burden of QoS/rate limiting to somewhere else in the network.