Staff members from Telus were busy greeting customer at O’ Delights Restaurant on Main Street last Friday morning as the company sponsored a free breakfast to inform returning snowbirds about the many new services and programming it’s offering in Osoyoos as part of a huge upgrade over the past six months. Joining local senior Tony Zelko are, clockwise from far left, are Telus staff members Mike Decouvee, Paul Andrews and Brian Wilman. (Keith Lacey photo)
The saying “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” wasn’t exactly true for a large group of Osoyoos residents last Friday morning.
That’s because staff from telecommunications giant Telus decided to offer a free breakfast at the Main Street restaurant O’ Delights for snowbirds who recently returned to town.
“A large segment of the population in town … the snowbirds, are just returning to town and they haven’t had an opportunity to hear our message and we wanted to take this opportunity to tell our story,” said Mike Lacouvee, director of product development for Telus in the South Okanagan. “We thought offering a free breakfast to local snowbirds to inform them about what has been going on with the Telus upgrade in Osoyoos this past winter was a good way to give back to the community.
“Our experience in Osoyoos is there’s a very high level of customer loyalty and this is a little way of also saying thank you to the local residents for supporting us.”
Over the past six months, Telus has spent more than $2 million to install a large fibre optic network across the Town of Osoyoos, which will allow a much broader assortment of cable television packages, but also much faster downloading and uploading capabilities for business customers, said Lacourvee.
Paul Andrews, a regional marketing manager who has been directly involved in the Osoyoos upgrade for Telus, said the local upgrade was completed six weeks ago and response by local residents has been tremendous.
Because the company has made such a large commitment to improving services in Osoyoos, they wanted snowbirds who are just returning to town to know about it, so staff came up with the idea of holding a free breakfast promotion, said Andrews.
Town of Osoyoos council and senior administration have been “exceptionally co-operative and helpful” since Telus announced they had plans to initiate the major fibre optic upgrade, said Lacourvee. There are still several multi-family buildings in Osoyoos that don’t have complete access to all of the services being offered by Telus as a result of the fibre optic program, but they should have full access in the next several weeks, he said.
“Our crews are still working on some technical issues to get everything finished in some multi-unit buildings, but everything is on schedule and we should be finished in the next little while,” said Andrews.
Between Telus staff and the contracting and sub-contracting companies that were used to complete this project, more than 100 workers have been living in Osoyoos for most of the past six months, which has provided a nice boost to the local economy, said Decouvee.
With such a heavy financial commitment to this project and so many new customers signing up for programming and services, Telus looks forward to doing business in Osoyoos for many years to come, he said.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
