Telus announces three proposed cell phone towers
Cortes Currents
English - May 21, 2021 14:04 - 5 minutes - 12.1 MBNews cortes island discovery islands quadra food security energy indigenous nations Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Telus unveiled its plan to erect five cell phone towers on Cortes and Quadra Islands at the January 13th, 2021 SRD Board meeting. More recenlty, they have given public announcements for three towers.
Two weeks ago they announced plans to erect a 73 foot metre tower is proposed on land owned by the We Wai Nation in Drew Harbour, Quadra Island. Anyone wishing to comment on this project has until June 4th
Another two towers have now been announced on Cortes Island. A 63.1 metre tall tower is proposed on TELUS’ property at 798 Rexford Road, in Mansons Landing. A second tower, 73 metres high, is to go up at 765 Whaletown Road in Whaletown. The comment period for these towers ends on June 28th.
According to their original plan, there could be another teo towers. TELUS did not answer a Cortes Currents query about an agreement they mentioned reaching, with a Squirrel Cove property owner, last January. They were looking for a property in the Heriot Bay area at that time.
A TELUS spokesperson emailed, “We are seeking input from local residents through the public consultation process, which is underway. We will continue working with the community and the Strathcona Regional District, and look forward to keeping residents updated as we progress toward our goal of upgrading wireless service in 2022.”
A concerned citizen wrote, in the Cortes Tideline,“If Telus gets the bid to build their towers on Cortes and Quadra, then the Connected Coast Project would not receive the funding it needs to be completed, as these areas would no longer be considered ‘unserved’. If the Connected Coast Project lost its funding, we’d be losing the opportunity for remote communities who could benefit from this government funded telecommunications infrastructure.”
She suggests that while Twincomm ‘could have the opportunity‘ to use Connected Coast’s cables, TELUS’ towers would take away business.
The TELUS spokesperson claimed the towers are “part of a broader project to improve cellular coverage throughout the inside passage of Coastal B.C. These proposals will provide residents of Cortes Island with an excellent level of cellular connectivity and will complement the high-speed Internet access planned as part of the Connected Coast project.”
There is more in the podcast
TELUS photo by Andrew Currie via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)