What Optik does is open the way for the future ... it will transform the world.
These are the words of Chris Langdon, VP of consumer products and services at Telus' Vancouver headquarters. He and others conversed with B.C. daily The Province—and in what should have been a non-biased piece (it was in the "news" section), "journalist" Terrence Belford of Postmedia News (which owns The Province) called the fibre optic a "revolution" (has he been talking to Steve Jobs?), openly dissed Bell, and has a Telus ad running on the page—a page, by the way, which is completely dedicated to the telecommunications oligopolist.
Potential (and by potential I mean guaranteed) bias aside, Telus does admittedly offer a first for Canadians: direct household connections by fibre optic cable, which can offer more than 20 times the speed of cable.
"It is a major step forward and will have tremendous future impact," touts Duncan Stewart, director of technology, media, and communications research at Toronto's Deloitte Canada.
Telus has invested well over $20 billion in infrastructure enhancements over the past decade, with plans to invest nearly $2 billion this year, maintaining its aggressive push into a service that is now seeing built-in adaptions in new condos and housing developments, signalling the rise of a new standard over the next few years.
Currently, and certainly in the past, cable's 50 megabit-per-second speed sufficed for household needs. But fibre optic cables, which will eventually push up to a full gigabit-per-second, can meet more modern and futuristic demands: highly rich content downloads and streaming, on-demand television.
The ad on the newspaper's page claims, a la Apple marketing, that "Optik TV" (as Telus has branded it) is "unlike anything you've ever seen before," and that it will "forever change how you view home entertainment."
It's a question of time whether fibre optic takes like wildfire and is adopted by the other two members of Canadian's telecommunications oligopoly, Rogers and Bell. And there's one other question: Will Telus consumers, who are apparently "broke deadbeats," be able to pass the company's gruelling credit check?
What are your thoughts on Telus and its fibre optic network?
Technology is a key enabler for TELUS and our customers, providing advantage and differentiation in the marketplace. By managing the life cycle of... [more]
Knowlton Thomas
Knowlton is the Associate Editor of Techvibes.
A Vancouver-based writer and author, Knowlton has been published in national and has also appeared on television and radio. He has written two ebooks are more are in the works.
Previously, he was an editor for New Westminster weekly The Other Press and served on its board of directors.
When not...[more]
