Any Downside to Allowing Telus Fibre Installation?

JPage
Grasshopper

Hi,

Telus has approached my strata in Burnaby about installing fibre optic cable to each unit. A question has come up among strata council members asking if allowing Telus to do this installation will block competitors in the future (such as Shaw, possibly?). 

Does anyone know of any downsides to allowing Telus to access units and install the fibre and digital box? I think the main worry was about blocking competition from other ISPs, but if there are any other down-sides, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Thank you,

JPage

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Hi there, a few years back now or maybe it was a couple y...

Sith
Grasshopper

Hi there, a few years back now or maybe it was a couple years ago, Telus did our whole residential neighbourhood. They wanted all house owners to sign off if they wanted to have the fibre set up to their gray box, outside the house. If you didn't authorize it they would not do it. Some people as a result switched over to Telus when that happened, to take advantage of the new connection but there was no pressure to take it and it was sold as a good thing to have done for the future. It didn't cost anything other than a couple of visits from salespeople after. Plus I guess you can use it as a selling point too, if deciding to move saying the house is Telus Fibre ready.

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I would say definitely allow Telus to install fibre optic...

Zeph
Grasshopper

I would say definitely allow Telus to install fibre optic cable. I don't think you or anyone should be worried at all in regards to any provider blocking competition from anyone else. Also keep this in mind... Telus' services are delivered from a phone jack, and Shaw's services are delivered from a cable outlet... though there might be an issue if you wanted Telus' TV and/or Internet service when subscribed to Shaw's Home Phone service.

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-  there might be an issue if you wanted Telus' TV and/or...

mdk
Legendary Grand Master

@Zeph -  there might be an issue if you wanted Telus' TV and/or Internet service when subscribed to Shaw's Home Phone service. 

Not really. If TELUS runs a fibre-optic cable into your unit, that's a brand-new cable, connecting to their modem, and your TV and Internet originate from their modem. That new cable does not use any of your existing telephone-wiring, nor, of course, any coaxial cable leading into Shaw's Phone Adapter. All your existing telephone-jacks will continue to work, because they are linked together.

If you currently have Shaw Phone, none of your telephone wires are connected to the telephone-cable that terminates at your unit -- when Shaw was installing Shaw Phone, they "cut" that connection to the Telus wires (out to the telephone pole).

A friend is in a "co-op" multiple-unit residential building. Their council negotiated a deal with Shaw, giving each owner a significant discount. Negotiate with TELUS, to see if they will offer a similar deal.

 

 

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I assume that Shaw already has their infrastructure in th...

rstra
Grand Master

I assume that Shaw already has their infrastructure in the building. There are some newer buildings that are exclusively Telus, I would be concerned about that because it not only limits your ability to choose Shaw as your provider, but also many third-party internet companies that use cable.

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>  limits your ability to choose Shaw as your provider No...

mdk
Legendary Grand Master

>  limits your ability to choose Shaw as your provider

Not really.

It will be a much-larger challenge for the Shaw installers to run coaxial-cable from the telephone-pole into the building's existing primary "wiring closet", and then to run coaxial-cables "vertically" to a secondary "wiring closet" in each floor in the building, and then pull more coaxial-cables "horizontally" to each unit on a floor. If there is TELUS wiring to each unit, there must be both primary and secondary wiring-closets already in existence.

Possibly, if only one resident requests service from Shaw, Shaw might say "no".  But, if Shaw receives multiple requests from residents, and can do all of them at the same time, Shaw will probably say "yes" -- Shaw likes monthly-revenue, even when their start-up costs are large.

Maybe, a configuration that exploits "Ethernet-over-power" would be applicable, because there is electrical-power into each unit. This would substitute for "horizontal" cable-runs down a corridor, where there is no "false-ceiling" to hide one cable-run for each unit down a corridor.

 

 

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No, Telus has signed exclusive deals with the strata, the...

rstra
Grand Master

No, Telus has signed exclusive deals with the strata, there is no option for cable, even if the owner wants them as a provider. If the deal expired, it is unlikely that Shaw would install in those buildings. While they could possibly pull cable into the eroom, chances are they wouldn’t be able to pull into each suite, and owners wouldn’t want cable on the outside. Even if Shaw did do all of that, they would want a commitment from X number or owners to make it worthwhile.

Trust me, I have a lot of experience with MDUs. There are many loop wired buildings that Shaw wouldn’t even touch. 

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Thanks for the discussion, guys! Our building is ~10 year...

JPage
Grasshopper

Thanks for the discussion, guys! Our building is ~10 years old and I currently have Shaw internet through a coax cable so I assume all units already have Shaw infrastructure in place. I'll make sure there is no exclusivity to Telus in the deal but it sounds like allowing Telus to install the fibre for all residents will be beneficial to the strata (unless I'm misunderstanding something). Unsure if we can get all owners on the same page to negotiate a group deal with Telus (since we are a strata, not a co-op), but something to keep in mind!

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Yes, it looks like just a standard rewire of the building...

rstra
Grand Master

Yes, it looks like just a standard rewire of the building, part of their upgrades that have been going on in BC and Alberta. 

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