TELUS has released its 2020 Indigenous Connectivity Report, highlighting the benefits from the partnerships between TELUS and Indigenous communities throughout British Columbia.
Through that partnership, TELUS serves 178 Indigenous communities serviced by TELUS, with approximately 18,500 homes, businesses, and community hubs have access to High-Speed Internet.
Some of those homes are included in the Cariboo region with the Xatsull and Williams Lake First Nation being especially featured.
For the Xatsull First Nation, Chief Sherri Sellars said that TELUS’ PureFibre connectivity has helped how the government and the community have connected.
“It allowed us to cut a lot of different financials in different ways because we had all different service providers to get our administration going. It’s allowed us to bring the costs down as well as allowed us to be able to communicate more with the community and the ability for the savings for community members that were accessing different internet providers,” she said. “It just cut a lot of different costs, and communication has opened wide up.”
Meanwhile, the Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) approached TELUS in 2018 to determine how they could collaborate to bring TELUS’ next-generation fibre-optic connectivity to the community. In partnership with WLFN and the government of BC’s Connecting BC Funding, TELUS PureFibre was turned on in the summer.
“High-speed internet has been a goal of our government for multiple years,” said Chief Willie Sellars. “As community leaders, we are committed to improving the quality of life for our people. Services, such as reliable internet, are a necessary part of existence in the modern world.”
In 2019, the All Nations Trust Company, Interior Health Authority and TELUS announced a project to connect 9 Indigenous communities, upwards of 2,200 people living on 13 reserves within the Cariboo region. In late fall, TELUS PureFibre launched in ?Esdilagh, Xatśūll, Esk’etemc, and Stswecem’c Xgat’tem; we are excited to connect with Ulkatcho, Tŝideldel, Tl’etinqox, Yunest’in and Tl’esqox in late 2020.
In total, TELUS has invested more than $25 million to connect Indigenous communities in BC to our PureFibre network, including enhanced wireline and wireless connectivity.