VICTORIA – High-speed Internet has come to Old Massett and Peggo.

The village on the north end of Haida Gwaii and the hamlet in the northeastern natural gas patch near the Northwest Territories border are the farthest-flung locations in B.C. covered by the latest wireless technology.

Telus and Bell went live with their next-generation 3G wireless network last week, delivering high-speed Internet service that's up to four times faster than home service delivered by wires.

For urban B.C. residents, the big news is that rival Rogers Communications has lost its Canadian monopoly on the Apple iPhone, and there will now be competition between at least three companies for the latest smart-phone services and plans.

But the new Telus wireless service also extends to 2,100 communities across B.C. and Alberta that had no Internet access of any kind until last week, Telus spokesman Shawn Hall says.

"We're always installing new cellphone towers in the Interior," Hall said. "We've got one now that's just about complete in Summerland. We've got one that's just come live on the Queen Charlotte Islands. We've got another one coming up on Koocanusa, which is the highway between Kalso and Cranbrook."

While Rogers has a big lead in sales of the iPhone since it was first offered in Canada, Telus touts its much larger network. A legacy of the long monopoly enjoyed by B.C. Tel and Alberta Government Telephones, the network reaches across the two western provinces while rival Rogers is confined to a few urban centres.

With the wireless service available through an Internet stick that goes in a port on any laptop computer, and network speed of 21 megabytes per second that is fast enough to download and view high-resolution video, people in rural areas can easily use it for their home Internet service as well as a mobile, Hall says.

Competition has also persuaded Telus to reduce its rates. It has dropped its system access and carrier 9-1-1 fees, although provincial or municipal taxes for 9-1-1 service will still show up on Telus bills. Hall says the average reduction is $7.70, and the corporation is raising its basic rate by $5 in a major simplification of its wireless rate plan.

The net saving is $2.70 on an average bill, and Telus is also offering voice mail free.

B.C.'s largest private corporation, Telus is gearing up for a crucial Christmas season as the wireless world becomes dominant. In addition to the iPhone, it will soon have the new BlackBerry Storm2 and a range of other smartphones that are changing the way computing is done.

While some of those offer compatibility all over the world, Hall says the real change will come when the 4G or "long-term evolution" network provides a true global standard in five to six years.

"We're in Beta-to-VHS right now and we're moving to DVD and everyone's going to be using the same standard," he said.