Canadian valley tries to remain cellphone-free

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

My wife is a big fan of a bed-and-breakfast north of San Francisco that, until recently, has remained fairly isolated from technology. This year, however, we found out they just installed not just broadband, but free wi-fi. A disappointment to her, but a major attraction to me. I’m not sure about cell phones yet, however; that still may be an issue, as in this Canadian valley, which wants to keep it that way.

Officials in a rural valley in British Columbia hope that keeping out cellphones will help attract residents and tourists who want to escape to the quiet of nature.

“The fact that we’re without cellphone service means that we’re able to enjoy life without the incessant sound of ringtones, immediately followed by someone’s shouted conversation,” Bill Roberts of the Slocan Valley Economic Development Commission said on Friday. Source: Reuters

We Say: They’ve asked telephone company Telus Corp. not to build a planned cellphone tower in New Denver, so that they can use the “cell phone free” environment as a way to promote the valley to visitors. Despite how people want to remain connected, being forcibly separated from your tech would really allow you to relax. Now that our bed-and-breakfast now has broadband and wi-fi, if it still doesn’t have cell phone reception I can still be disconnected from work (without my PDA and Good Mobile Messaging) but still play City of Heroes (yeah, yeah, I know; technically I could connect to work email using OWA, but let’s pretend that doesn’t exist).