Telus
|
|
Telus Template:Tsx Template:Nyse is a telephone company in Canada, the country's second-largest telecommunications carrier after BCE (Bell Canada). It is the primary local telephone service provider (or ILEC) in Alberta and most of British Columbia, as well as in portions of eastern Quebec near Quebec City and the Gaspé region; it competes with BCE and other telephone companies as a CLEC in many parts of Canada that lie outside of Telus' ILEC regions. While the company style guide prefers to refer the company in all-uppercase letters, the name is not an acronym and usage outside the company tends to stick to a mixed-case format.
History
The brand name "Telus" was first used, in 1990, as a new name for the former Alberta Government Telephones after this organization was privatized by the Alberta provincial government. In 1995, Telus purchased Ed Tel from the City of Edmonton, ending the era of government-owned telecommunications carriers in Alberta.
A new version of Telus was formed in January 1999 via the merger of GTE subsidiary BC Tel, the former monopoly telecommunications service provider in British Columbia, and the "Alberta only" version of Telus. Although BC Tel was the larger of the two merging companies the new entity decided to retain the Telus name, abandoning the regional connotations of the BC Tel brand, while expanding its reach to compete on a national and international scale.
In March 2000, Telus obtained a controlling interest in QuébecTel, a local service provider in southern Quebec. Later the same year Telus acquired Clearnet Communications Inc., a digital mobile telephone provider based in Pickering, Ontario, which it combined with Telus Mobility to form a wireless telecommunications service provider with national scope.
In May 2004, Telus, via its Telus Mobility division, made a $1.1-billion bid for Microcell Telecommunications (holders of the Fido brand name), seeking further expansion in the fast-growing wireless communications sector but was eventually outbid by Rogers Communications.
Advertising
Telus is well known for its commercials featuring vibrantly coloured animals against a white background (it inherited this advertising campaign from Clearnet).
External links
- Risky Business; The Ed Tel Story (http://www.hackcanada.com/telco/edtel.html) Brief labour-oriented history of Edmonton Telephones
- Telus Main Corporate Website (http://www.telus.com)
- Telus International (http://www.telusinternational.com)
- Telus Mobility (http://www.telusmobility.com)
- Telus Québec (http://www.telusquebec.com)