Secretary General CRTC

cc: to Mr. Willie Grieve, VP Regulatory Affairs

Please note I am not planning to attend the Oral Hearing.

Sirs:

In my September phone bill was a Customer Notice regarding the Price Cap

Review and Related Issues. Now I am not a lawyer or educated in the

legal-speak of our modern world, but I think I am getting some of the drift

of this notice. Please clarify for me if I am incorrect.

Telus is proposing this Service Improvement Plan to upgrade service to

underserved communities and extend service to unserved communities. This is

great and I agree as I have lived in remote BC locations with no telephone

service at all.

Now we get to the part of subsidation. From what I understand Telus is

proposing that in unserved communities the local customers will pay a

portion and the rest of us will subsidize the remainder of the costs. As

well, if I am correct, for underserved communities the rest of us customers

foot the entire bill.

This is where I have my confusion....I quote, "TELUS has also proposed that

it have flexibility to raise rates for local service (including extended

areas) by up to $3/month/year to a maximum of $35 per month for residential

customers." What does this mean? Does this mean that on top of the

god-awful amount I already pay I will have to pay an additional

$35/month/year to subsidize the rest of the province...or that what I pay

for my residential line will go up to a maximum of $35/month plus my extra

bundle items? Personally, either way I do not want to subsidize the rest of

the province. I generally pay anywhere from $65 - $85/month for my phone

bill. I work hard for my money and most months I hardly even use my phone

outside of the necessary work calls I need to deal with nightly.

Maybe I haven't been the best customer at times, but I have always supported

BC Tel/Telus with my patronage and not used any other inferior telephone

companies. If Telus wants to upgrade service to BC areas, then Telus should

pay for it, not those of us who already pay for our own service.

BC residents are getting tired of the big companies making record profits

each year, the top management making hundreds of thousands of dollars per

year plus tasty expense accounts, meanwhile us working Joe's are getting

farther and farther behind. It's about time some of those record profits

get recycled into the companies and stop coming out of our pockets.

I would appreciate a response explaining how much money Telus is proposing

to remove from my monthly income and if the CRTC is going to allow this.

Shawne K. McCorkell

Charter Manager

Western Trailways of Canada

Cantrail Coach Lines Ltd.

Phone#: 604-940-5561

Fax#: 604-940-5532