I saw today at the shoppers mall that Telus will be making its debut here in Brandon! As a former Albertan, and a person who cannot stand mts/Rogers/Bell/whatever else is out there, I for one am very excited to have a REAL cell phone company coming to town!!  
Anyone else excited for this?

Edited by admin, 2012-08-01 21:37:00. Reason: Updated title

I am happy with my MTS phones and TV. I have had rogers and the old pay as you go and the only thing I have ever been turned off by is poor customer service. Plus the mts bundles saves you money.

Good luck with service if you roam off the Trans Canada. But the more options, the better!

Telus is alright as long as you never venture more than 30km from Hwy #1.

When is the launch date? That way I can budget a new phone because my koodo cdma blackberry sucks and I want an android . I was in the mall today too, I didn't see any signs so clearly I'm blind. Haha.

Judging by how their rollout, I would say May or June (conservatively - but the towers were originally planned for early 2010). I think they are mostly waiting for the store to open first.

I keep asking them when their TV service will follow.....no date yet.  
 
Internet also no date yet.  
 
"The monopoly" you are going down........  
 
TV gone, home phone gone, just waiting on alarm and cell phone contracts to be up and they are outta there too.....

We moved from ON, and haev a contract with Telus. Nothing against the customer service- it's great comparitively, but the actualy cell service is CRAP! Just warning you, you can't text pics or receive them, you can't send long texts- it's crap. Also my calls are frequently dropped, and that's if I can even manage to make a call in the first place. I've heard many others I know with Telus say the same thing, especially about texting.

Is that whats going up out on 110? They have been putting together what looked to me like a cell tower? I was thinking maybe Telus.

We used to live in AB too.. and loved the internet service.. no interuptions, no slow service.. great internet company..Great news thanks for sharing

4G Coverage in Manitoba  
Manitoba's 4G coverage is now available in Steinbach, Selkirk, Sainte Anne, Lockport, Victoria Beach and Portage La Prairie.  
 
Coverage will be expanded to Brandon in 2012.  
 
911 emergency calls can still be made outside our 4G network as long as you are within another carrier’s wireless coverage area.  
 
So looking into Telus there isn't a whole lot of service area. I can see it now. People rushing out to go against the "monopoly" and then complain when they are out at the lake and their phone doesn't work. Heck I know one guy who hates coming out to SW Manitoba as his Telus phone doesn't work outside Winnipeg. Sure they have added Portage and soon Brandon but what about all other service areas?

MTS - good bundles, ok packages, poor phone selection, "unlimited" anything applies only in Manitoba, coverage is very good in MB and OK in Canada, customer service is so-so.  
 
Rogers - no bundles (tv & internet not avail. in MB), ok packages, fairly good phone selection, "unlimited" applies in all of Canada, coverage is very good in MB and fairly good in Canada, customer service is poor to ok.  
 
Telus - no bundles, good packages, very good phone selection, "unlimited" applies where there is Telus service in Canada, coverage is poor in MB outside of major cities and off Trans-Canada but quite good in rest of Canada, customer service is good.  
 
These are my opinions from personal experience. Even with the poor customer service, for someone who lives in Manitoba and does any traveling outside of WPG (or other big towns soon) or off the #1, and travels a lot in Canada, Rogers is still the best bet. If you stay strictly in Manitoba, MTS is your best bet and if you stick to WPG and other major towns in MB but travel in Canada, Telus might be the way to go once the finish upgrades here.  
 
As for outside of Canada, just get a throwaway phone from AT&T or Verizon for the US. It's way cheaper than any roaming plan I've seen with any of the other providers in Canada.  

I have been here 4 yrs (also from AB) and still have my telus plan, nothing here can compete with the plan I have. Will be nice to get a local number though LOL

The rate plans that telus has are far better than MTS, my husband needed a new phone out here and when he went to MTS, they quoted him 200 or 250 per MONTH for the amount of minutes he would have needed for his job.

I used to have Telus and although they were good for me when I was in a TELUS area but I found them to be a bit of a pain in the *** when not. I will elaborate a bit, I lived near Toronto and I only had a Cell for phone use only no msging, but I ended up moving back to Brandon and at that time they did not have Telus service in Brandon and I was stuck with an Ontario #, I tried to cancel but being under contract they were forcing me to pay a cancellation fee even though they could not provide me with service, I did in deed cancel and ignored the bills until I decided to call them back and ask about a local number to which they could provide now, but the service was lacking as it was roaming via MTS. They were no better to deal with then any other company so don:t think b/c they are NEW here they are all that.

so does this mean once this happens my koodo blackberry will work in brandon??

CL said "Good luck with service if you roam off the Trans Canada. But the more options, the better!"

I dont think Telus is good YET.. like CL stated good luck outside of Brandon, pretty much stats it all!  
 
Don't be fooled by their awesome prices. For those of you that dont travel outside of Brandon, then yes it will be good for you.  
 
But MOST people will travel and soon find out the hard way that the coverage isn't going to be the greatest. More towers will be needed to offer consistant roaming.

Lived in Alberta and was a lifelong Telus customer. Always good deals and always price matching with great service for loyal customers. If they can get the coverage here, it will be a strong competitor. I will switch in a heartbeat once they offer TV and I-Net.

porcupinecone said "I saw today at the shoppers mall that Telus will be making its debut here in Brandon! As a former Albertan, and a person who cannot stand mts/Rogers/Bell/whatever else is out there, I for one am very excited to have a REAL cell phone company coming to town!!   Anyone else excited for this? "

RED DRAGONS!!!!  
I've been with Telus on my 4th year now... I don't BBM and stuff like that so their service is good enough for me.

Just to update....  
Shoppers Mall is reporting that Telus will be open on October 1 in the mall. Stands to reason that they'll be selling product that works off towers that will be turned on by at least then if not sooner?

porcupinecone said "I saw today at the shoppers mall that Telus will be making its debut here in Brandon! As a former Albertan, and a person who cannot stand mts/Rogers/Bell/whatever else is out there, I for one am very excited to have a REAL cell phone company coming to town!!   Anyone else excited for this? "

So what defines a REAL cell phone company? If the phones only work in larger city areas is it really that good? I have family visiting northern ontario and they hate that they have no coverage, no internet, nothing. I have coverage with MTS. The only place I have had poor reception is the smaller towns in Sask. Otherwise I have had coverage from Alberta to Toronto.

Caring Guy said "Lived in Alberta and was a lifelong Telus customer. Always good deals and always price matching with great service for loyal customers. If they can get the coverage here, it will be a strong competitor. I will switch in a heartbeat once they offer TV and I-Net. "

Is what we are waiting patiently for as well....we are steadily cancelling our MTS services as the contacts are up and as soon as we know internet is coming too - Telus will have our business.  
 
They care about customer service and loyalty. And their prices are pretty darn good too.

was visiting us in Brandon a few weeks back...he couldn't make voice calls and texting was so so...they all have their pluses and minuses. My mts cell has worked from anywhere in Canada I wanted to use it without issues. I am sure there may be some that are not quite so costly..but I hate issues, lol.

I have nothing against Telus as a company, but I'm not gonna be running out and signing up for a phone that won't work outside Brandon. Maybe in 5 years when they get real coverage in MB, but for now nope.  
 
 
But honestly, I really hope they do well, it'd be nice to have another option (and more options mean more bargaining chips when my MTS contract is up).

Here is what I know now. Yes I see Telus putting in all the Fibre optic cables etc.  
 
I work on the highway and the number one cell company people complain about is telus.  
 
For some the service is intermittent. Others say that as soon as they bhey hot the Manitoba border they lost all service.  
 
I am sure for many it was how they had their phones set re roaming on/off etc. My thinking though is that there is too many complaints about one cell company for it to be blamed on the users,  
 
Its one thing to hear complaints about off the trans canada coverage. I understand that but man this is on the Trans canada Coverage!.  
 
Maybe they are late to the ball game coming into Manitoba in General and certainly north and south of the number 0n. Yet if they have not buttoned down good cross canada service on the Trans Canada by now I really wonder why??  
 
Maybe Oct 1st I will go ask. My Rogers service drops far too much and I travel pretty much no where. Maybe by then they (telus) will have a fix and a answer!!!  
 

Its funny how you see a company as a whole from a personal experience that left a bad taste in your mouth.  
 
I also laugh at what you guys call a "monopoly" which will never happen due to the crtc.  
 
I think every company has their ups and downs and I also agree that competition is good for the customers.

I have had telus for 14yrs in Westman.  
 
It has had its challenges with data outside of Winnipeg for MB but once at the SK border and in AB, BC, ON, QC, Maritimes and the USA it works great and fine for me on my BB. MTS will not match the plan I have with Telus, I have asked them just to see what they say a few times.  
 
My service has been fine for phone in and out in any area off #1, #2, #3, #16 and throughout the USA.  
 
The addition of Data through to Brandon will be great, no further need to worry about WiFi.  
 

looking to get Telus at launch you might want to reconsider since any HSPA phone that requires a SIM CARD will ONLY working in Brandon and very immediate surrounding area and along #1 to Winnipeg, that is it. Anything up North as far as I know will not work at all, so it will be like anyone now that has a cell from Telus coming to Brandon and not getting service, only CDMA phones currently work in Brandon.

I highly doubt your phone will work on Highway 1 to Winnipeg if your on Telus. Be prepared to have no signal 90% of the time.  
 
Once Telus is fully rolled out... Bell phones will start working here and they will most likely provide service to Manitoba as well..

sure what the big surprise is (was) Telus has been digging up the roads all over Brandon for the past 3 months???