Delay leaves many neighbourhoods in the city of St. Albert without access to Telus’ PureFibre home internet network
is blaming Ottawa’s ban on China’s Huawei Technologies Inc. for pausing its fibre optic network build in the city of St. Albert and elsewhere in Alberta, raising questions over the sanction’s spillover effects on connectivity in smaller communities.
“They have had to dismantle the Huawei infrastructure on all of their antennas and so primarily we’re seeing pressures on the capital that they had available for all the builds across Alberta,” she said. Telus, which at the time used Huawei radio equipment in non-core portions of its 3G and 4G wireless networks, said in 2019 it did not believe Huawei posed a major risk to national security.
In a statement, Telus said it is committed to keeping St. Albert residents, businesses and customers updated on the progress of its PureFibre rollout once it resumes. The company did not answer questions regarding when that would be, as well as the effect of the Huawei ban and where else in Alberta it has paused its fibre network build.
Canada’s Huawei ban is in line with many of its allies. The U.S., U.K. and Australia have similarly blocked the Chinese company from participating in their 5G rollouts over security concerns, while last week the Financial Times reported the European Union is considering a ban on its members using Huawei equipment.
“It was fairly clear that Canada was going to eventually follow suit. So this expense, yes, it is a substantial expense for the infrastructure providers in Canada, but it’s one that they’ve had ample time to see coming.”
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Mike Drew: Softer side of spring in southern AlbertaPhotographer Mike Drew couldn\u0027t help but be mesmerized by all the fluff covering everything downstream of the Carseland Weir.
Read more »
What to expect from Alberta Premier Smith's mostly-familiar cabinetSmith\u0027s cabinet may be full of familiar faces, but it signals a renewed fight with Ottawa and shunning of newly\u002Delected members.
Read more »
What to expect from Alberta Premier Smith's mostly-familiar cabinetSmith\u0027s cabinet may be full of familiar faces, but it signals a renewed fight with Ottawa and shunning of newly\u002Delected members.
Read more »
Destination Canada marketing increasingly to focus on roads between West Coast and AlbertaMove dovetails with Destination British Columbia's previously stated priority
Read more »
Wildfires raging in Quebec, Alberta and B.C., triggering new evacuationsNearly 14,000 people were under evacuation orders in Quebec on Saturday, and authorities said most of them are not expected to return home until at least early next week
Read more »
Progress made, but battle against wildfires rage on in Quebec, Alberta, B.C.The weekend’s wildfire fight in several provinces saw more people evacuated from their homes and more still denied the ability to return
Read more »