Paging testing underway

Radioworks in Victoria was at the top of the search.  They weren't mentioned in the meeting.  They've been operating in Victoria since 1992.  They are locally owned and operated.

I just spoke with their tech support person and he has informed me that hundreds of Telus customers are switching to them and Radioworks is very busy meeting this demand.  He said that normally he would come to Lasqueti to do the testing of their service personally but given the timing, he has sent 3 pagers to our island for testing and made himself available 24/7.  He expects the testing to be done this week and says the process is very easy.  He was extremely helpful and understanding of our situation.  He offered to send me a pager to test; I gratefully declined.  There are enough fingers in that particular pie.

Richard, our Fire Chief, told me Sunday night that he was recently informed about Radioworks and would be testing their service.  He called me to answer the questions I raised during the meeting but, due to the discussion, weren't.

If the community had been made aware of the end of Telus paging back in June (or before, when the PRRD was first informed), the Radioworks option would have been tried and tested well before this week.  Brigitte has since found Satellite paging which seems like the best option yet.

I haven't heard back from Pagenet or Rogers but expect their information to match that given at the meeting, which is that their service coverage is worse than Telus's current coverage. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean much to me since the important aspect of coverage is reaching the First Responders and Fire Dept Volunteers where they usually live and work, not whether the coverage is good or bad.  At least 1 current, very active Fire Dept/First Responder is confident that the proposed 911 signal will not reach him.

Given Ross's statement that 911 has been a project that the PRRD has wanted to impose upon us for years, I'm not surprised that Radioworks was not contacted until now.  If it doesn't work out of the box, I bet they would make their service work for us, given who they are.  That doesn't support the conversion to 911 at all.

Dave