Dozens of Telus customers in rural areas north of Kamloops are losing their landlines, and with no new cell towers planned, many will have to rely on Starlink for phone service, according to a report from iNFOnews.
The CRTC ordered Telus to pay affected customers nearly $6,000 to help cover the extra costs of switching to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet.
At first, Telus offered $1,400 in compensation when it announced the service cuts last year, but the CRTC ruled that wasn’t enough, increasing the payout by an additional $4,428 to cover three years of Starlink service.
Telus said the technology used for 65 homes and businesses in the Tranquille Valley, Red Lake, and Greenstone Mountain areas is outdated and obsolete, making it too expensive to maintain. Telus chose not to extend 5G upgrades to the affected rural areas. Without connectivity, Starlink is the only solution for internet since there are no cell towers in the area either.
Local leaders, including Thompson Nicola Regional District director Michael Grenier, pushed for Telus to install cell towers, citing the need for reliable emergency communication in wildfire-prone regions. However, Telus declined, saying it would be too costly.
Although the CRTC requires telecoms to provide services to Canadians, it granted an exception to Telus due to the high costs and difficult terrain. The ruling also applies to other rural areas near Alexis Creek in the Central Interior and Tahsis on Vancouver Island.
Grenier pointed out that Starlink costs at least five times more than the existing landline connections, and even with the CRTC’s payout, customers will still face ongoing monthly charges from Telus for phone service. While the regulator mentioned that Telus could apply for federal funding to expand cellular service in the region, there’s no word when that will ever happen.
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Let's see now. They have downsized thousands of jobs, they have offshore thousands more to places where Telus has no customers, they make billions annually and yet they can't afford a small area of cell service. There are words for people like them but I can't use them here
Why are there ongoing monthly charges from Telus for phone service, if they are discontinuing the service?
because they still need a phone number. Some cell providers will use wifi for phone calls when cell service isn't available.
No problem. As an independent ISP, I can supply public phone numbers which aren't connected to a copper line or even a cellphone.
when Darren moved to sechelt building a tower and buying other property wasnt a problem
In other words, we are not here to provide the service to the customers, we are here to squeeze the profit out of them. We don’t exist to serve you, you all exist to serve us and our business. When that is not possible, you don’t exist in our eyes. Your needs, that we are in business of fulfilling, are irrelevant to us.
Great. Canadians having to rely on a foreign company as owned by a nationalist narcissist busy driving his adopted country into the ground and illegally accessing the private information of hundreds of millions – all because the original Canadian company can't be bothered to maintain an existing service. What could possibly go wrong?
No foreign company. Soon Canada will become the 51st.
Not soon. Not at all. Very uninformed viewpoint.
sorry lefty. I can't help you in your frustration
Low quality bait.
There’s a million hurdles to clear for amalgamation to be anywhere close to reality.
We're already like a 3rd world nation. Why would the US even want us? Maybe we can negotiate a deal with Russia or China to absorb us. China could eat us for lunch, and send just 1% of their populous over to build our economy, housing shortage, etc.
The US in a 3rd world nation. We don't want that garbage.
Elon, the head of Starlink, has Canadian citizenship.
What could possibly go wrong? How about government involvement? I've been a ham radio operator and shortwave radio listener for most of my 70+ years, but never seen censorship of the media by governments like we have it today. Most countries tries have shut down their shortwave news services, and those which we get via the internet are easily purged, especially via AI.
If these towns were cohesive, they could buy several starlink antennas per town and then share the capacity and cost between all households. There are excellent fiber and wireless networks available. No need to maintain an expensive starlink antenna and monthly fee per household.
That is likely not within the terms and conditions for Starlink. Also it might be cheaper, but wouldn't be a great connection with too many folks on it.
Sorry, that's not true. As the owner of a company that supplies communications services, unlike satellite TV service, the telcos have no way of knowing how many users there are on a particular connection, but rather the individual users' data rate slows down. But that too is no problem, simply add on more downlink feeds and besides it will improve redundancy. Also, you can combine, cable, fibre, satellite and cellular feeds, so everyone benefits.
What is not true?? Section 4.2 of Starlink's T&C states "The Residential Service Plan is designed for personal, family, or household use at a fixed land-based location." I said it's likely not allowed in the T&C. That part is true. You said their data rate will slow down, which is exactly what I said, so that part is true. It's also clear you didn't actually read the article as you suggest cable, fibre, and mobile feeds. There is no cable, fibre, or 5g service in that area. That's the whole point!
Kindly point out which part I said that wasn't true.
Actually it is true.
The new technology for sure is not from Tellus, Bell or whatever other oldy company. Everywhere connection is the future and Starlink is the solution. Sorry guys. The future is not yours.
Don't worry, China is not far behind in being able to supply a satellite internet service. I'd be worried if I was the Telcos. Actually, Telus announced in 2022 that it would be investing $20 billion to provide HS internet for all of its rural customers by 2027. The CRTC has set a standard for all rural homes of 50 mbps. Starlink can service offers 150 mbps now, which means one drop can service 3 homes using cheap wifi distribution. But what's more, even the most demanding service; HD TV, only requires 10 mbps, meaning a single Starlink drop could supply 15 subscribers. And phone service only need 5 kbps, or one Starlink, or supply 10,000 simultaneous phone calls!
This is nonsense. Our amateur radio club has been providing wifi services in remote areas of West central Alberta since 2010, and going back to the 1990's through to Valemount. However, starting in 2017 the Yellowhead County engaged in an effort to destroy our club because they had a plan to set up a monopoly with their own internet/radio communications network.
The Yellowhead County has received a $23 million subsidy from the federal/provincial governments to build its own monopoly fiber network, which works out to $15,000/residence in the county, and at that people will still have to pay $100/mo. for the internet service. When our little organization dared to question this, the county threatened to sue us to shut us up. Through its criminal actions the county is also partly responsible for the Jasper fire getting out of control!
Speaking as someone who was employed as a Microwave radio/fiber tech with CNCP/Unitel for over 13 years, installing fibre in a rural setting makes no economic sense. Even 3rd world countries have better wireless service than Canada… and oh yes, the Yellowhead County has screwed over Telus too.
I was recently in France and observed that consumers there are only paying C$30/mo. for internet/phone/TV service.
Yet there are quite a few rural areas that have fibre service and more and more coming online all the time. Other than maybe microwave for backhaul with fibre in the local area.. wireless sucks for the last mile connection.
I just came across an article in a 2014 newspaper, where our Conservative MP said that the federal government expected that within 7 years, or by 2021, 97% of rural Canadians would have HS internet. And that was before Starlink was even on the horizon. Rural Ukraine is getting the service, so what do Canadians have to do, go to war?
Wow, so patriotic of Telus. It really stepped up to help their fellow Canadians, eh? Good thing the CRTC is protecting them from foreign competition for providing such valuable service to its fellow Canadians. With all this talk of being annexed by America, it makes one proud of our Canadian companies like Telus and all they do for us. And let us not forget Rogers, Bell or even Loblaws either, as they have treated Canadians just as amazingly as Telus has! With large Canadian corporations so strongly on our side, we should do all we can to support them in our time of need.
What about people who can’t use a cell phone or wi-fi? There are people with radiation injuries who need a copper landline. Seniors who don’t have internet or a cell phone need them too. When the power goes out you still have a phone. It’s ok to have both. The CRTC needs to start funding them again. Bell doesn’t want to pick up the whole bill. https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/plaint.htm
I still don’t have my land line phone number since December 4, 2025