VANCOUVER - Telus has announced it will invest $2.8 billion in infrastructure and internet connectivity across B.C. over the next two-and-a-half years.

The telecom giant said Monday that it will spend $1.2 billion in B.C. this year as part of a three-year plan announced in 2012, and $1.6 billion in 2015 and 2016.

Company president and CEO Darren Entwistle boasted in a news release that the cash infusion will ensure B.C. remains “one of the most connected places anywhere in the world.”

The investment includes a deployment of the company’s new 700-MHz spectrum licences, purchased at auction in February, and installation of dozens of new wireless sites along highways in remote areas. The money will also go towards expanding Telus’s electronic medical records program and completing construction on the downtown Vancouver Telus Garden office tower.

The company said it will have invested more than $40 billion in B.C. infrastructure, technology and operations by the end of 2016. The news release also pointed out that Telus has remitted $3.2 billion in taxes to provincial and municipal governments in British Columbia since 2000.

The announcement comes ahead of the company's annual general meeting this week, when Entwistle is set to be replaced as CEO by chief commercial officer Joe Natale. Entwistle will remain with the company, however, acting as executive chairman. Chairman Brian Canfield is retiring.