Cellphones finally rang on Thursday in Gros-Mécatina, the last municipality that remained to be connected to this service on the Lower North Shore.
“In 46 years of marriage, I have never seen my wife so happy. This morning, his cell phone rang for the first time, ”says Randy Jones, prefect of the Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent MRC and mayor of Gros-Mécatina, where Telus is completing a LTE wireless technology network. Until this year, it was impossible to use a cell phone in the villages of the Lower North Shore, and the internet was unstable and only worked through a satellite dish.
“Here [mercredi], I spent five hours on Zoom meeting with people from across Canada. We could never have done this before. There is also a citizen of the village who was able to do his medical consultation over the internet instead of going to Sept-Îles. [NDLR : à 663 km de Gros-Mécatina]. Telemedicine is on our doorstep. ”
For these communities of the Lower North Shore where the road does not go, it is quite a revolution. The villages of Blanc-Sablon, La Romaine and Kegaska have been connected for a few months and Chevery was connected on Tuesday.
“Two people had a boating accident this summer between Kegaska and La Romaine. Using their cell phone, they were able to call the Coast Guard. It’s a safety issue, too, ”says Randy Jones.
Telus still has some testing to do before the work concludes scheduled for early 2021. The massive $ 23 million project, to which the telecommunications company, and the provincial and federal governments have contributed, will provide high-speed and cellular connection to 15 isolated villages on the Lower North Shore located between Natasquan and the Labrador border.
“It’s the best Christmas gift anyone could give us, two more years before the end of the deadline. We don’t have a road, but the technology road will link us to the rest of the world, ”says Jones.
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