By Jack Clark

Cell Service

‘This is not acceptable’: Buckhorn residents fed up with poor cell service

Aug 9, 2023 | 10:35 AM

PRINCE GEORGE- It was right down the road from Buckhorn Elementary School when Chris Stern Found a single motor vehicle incident just off Highway 97.

“It rang,” said Stern. “We could not communicate because we were sounding like robots. The sound was dropping off. We weren’t communicating.”

The issue? Weak or no cell phone service in the area. An all too familiar issue to Chris and the residents of Buckhorn.

Over the last two years, Stern says he has spent countless hours in communication with his service provider Telus. The company has provided Chris and his family with a price reduction due to the lack of service. However, Stern says they have not provided any solutions.

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“They reduced our bill by 60 per cent, which I told them is great. It’s appreciated. But if I can’t make a 9-1-1 call, it’s void,” said Stern.

This issue isn’t limited to just the Buckhorn area, MLA Shirley Bond says the lack of service expands across many rural areas in her riding.

“There are still thousands of kilometres of highways in British Columbia where you do not have cell phone service for long stretches,” says Bond.

Since 2020 the Provincial government has invested 90 million dollars into expanding coverage along rural highways in B.C. This will expand coverage an additional 1032 Km, but that still leaves plenty of British Columbians in the dark says Bond.