p2pnet news | mobiles:- When you’re “portaging your canoe between two lakes and all you’re hearing is the call of the loons, the rustles in the forest that could be deer, or bears,” what’s the the last thing you want to hear?

Colonel Bogey’s March, says Bill Roberts of the Slocan Valley Economic Development Commission.

Right. Solution?

Get the local provider, in this case Telus, to stop building its new new transmitter so the area can be marketed as ring-tone free.

And that’s currently how things are in the 80-kilometre-long Slocan Valley in British Columbia, Canada, where, continues the CanWest News Service, locals would, “rather hear the call of the wild than a call on their cellphones”.

The commission represents business interests in the BC interior and it believes tourists will appreciate being able to find genuine quiet time, there, and after a public meeting on June 21, Telus stopped work on the transmitter, says the Vancouver Sun, going on the transmitter was slated to share a tower with a CBC station in the 550-person village of New Denver.

“We get dozens of requests from communities every year to bring wireless service there,” the story has Telus spokesman Shawn Hall saying. “They see it as an economic driver, to bring them into the 21st century.”

But, “New Denver acting mayor Katrine Campbell said that tourists come to the Slocan Valley – home to 4,300 residents – to get away from it all.

“We can say, ‘Come here for holidaying and your boss can’t get hold of you’ – that’s a bonus,” the story quotes her as saying, adding:

“Roberts, who owns a cellphone and has retired after serving as a trade commissioner for Foreign Affairs, said the valley isn’t anti-technology, pointing to its year-long effort to have wireless Internet service established in the valley.”

Slashdot it!

Also See:
CanWest News Service – B.C. valley hangs up on any cellphone usage, July 21, 2007
Vancouver Sun – Slocan Valley residents fight to be ‘ringtone free’, July 21, 2007

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2007 at 7:22 am and is filed under Mobiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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