Telus
 | |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as |
TSX: T (voting) TSX: T.A (non-voting) NYSE: TU (non-voting) S&P/TSX 60 component |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Headquarters | Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada |
| Key people | Darren Entwistle, President and CEO |
| Products | CDMA 2000, IDEN, HSPA+, LTE |
| Revenue | 10.4 Billion (2011) |
| Operating income | 2.0 Billion (2011) |
| Net income | 1.2 Billion (2011) |
| Employees | 41,100 (2011) |
| Subsidiaries | Telus Mobility |
| Website | www.telus.com |
Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, healthcare, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver. Telus's wireless division, Telus Mobility, offers CDMA 2000, IDEN, HSPA+, and LTE-based mobile phone networks.
Telus is a member of the British Columbia Technology Industry Association.
Background
Telus Communications (Alberta) was created in 1990 by the government of Alberta as a holding company in order to facilitate the privatization of a crown corporation, the Alberta Government Telephones Commission (AGT).[1][2][3] In 1995, it acquired Edmonton Telephones Corporation (Ed Tel) from the City of Edmonton[4] making Telus the owner of all telephone service in the province. In 1996, Telus was introduced to the public as the consumer brand, replacing AGT and EdTel.[1][5] In 1998, Telus and BCTel announced a proposed merger.[6] The merge was completed in 1999, with the corporate name slightly modified to Telus Corporation. While Telus was the surviving company, it moved its headquarters to Vancouver.[1][7] As a result of the merger Telus became Canada's second largest telcom with 22% of market share compared to Bell Canada's 42%.[7][8][9]
Large swaths of rural Quebec, mainly the Gaspé Peninsula and the north shore, were served from 1927 by an entity known as Corporation de Téléphone et de Pouvoir de Québec, and in 1955, this became known as Québec Téléphone. In 1966, the Anglo-Canadian Telephone Company, a subsidiary of General Telephone and Electronics of Stamford, Connecticut (later GTE), became a majority shareholder in Québec Téléphone. Anglo-Canadian also owned BCTel, and GTE (later merged into Verizon) also owned services in Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. In 1997, Groupe QuébecTel was established to own Québec Téléphone. Following the merger of BCTel with Telus of Alberta, GTE sold its interests in Québec Téléphone to Telus in August 2000, which renamed it Telus Québec on April 2, 2001.
In late 2004, American telecom Verizon Communications sold its 20.5% stake in Telus. This was so that Verizon could focus more on its own services.[10]
Acquisition of Clearnet Communications
In the 1999-2000 period, Telus acquired the high-performing Scarborough, Ontario based cellular company Clearnet Communications through merger, which gave it a foothold in the highly competitive central Canadian market in Ontario and Quebec, Canada's largest provinces in terms of population. The company had its origins in nearby Pickering, Ontario, and was by 1997 outperforming the other Toronto/Ontario-based cellular companies. Its phones were easily available at various retailers, and its marketing was fresh and innovative at the time, emphasizing bold, uncluttered simplicity (a concept gaining popularity today), and a bright future outlook through its nature and animals motifs.
Labour dispute
Telus' labour dispute with the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) began after the previous contract, negotiated with BCTel before the Telus merger expired at the end of 2000. After Telus made its final offer to the TWU it informed the union of its intention to bring an end to the dispute by unilaterally implementing its April 2005 offer to employees in Alberta and British Columbia. The next day the union was subsequently locked out by the company.
On July 25, 2005, Telus blocked its Internet subscribers from accessing a website supporting locked out union members. The company expressed concerns over content on the site, saying it identified employees crossing picket lines and encouraged disruptive behaviour,[11] while the union alleged it amounted to censorship.[11][12] The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association issued an official objection to the unilateral blocking on July 26, stating "Telus is leveraging its power as a telecommunications service provider to censor a specific group, shut down debate and limit the messages conveyed about the current labour dispute".[13] An Alberta court injunction ordered the blocked website, Voices For Change, to remove postings of "Telus employee photos" and other "intimidating or threatening material". The site owner agreed to comply and Telus unblocked the website.[14] Telus and the TWU ratified a tentative agreement on November 18, 2005, ending the dispute.[15]
Telus International
Telus International is Telus’ global arm, providing global contact center and business process outsourcing services to corporations in the financial services, consumer electronics and gaming, telecommunications, energy and utilities industries.
Telus International has contact centers in the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the United States (Nevada), Central America (Guatemala and El Salvador), where it is known as Transactel powered by Telus, and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria and Romania), where it is known as CallPoint Powered By Telus.
Relaunch of Clearnet
In April 2011, Telus Mobility relaunched the Clearnet brand as a limited market trial in Kelowna, British Columbia, and Red Deer, Alberta. The company again closed to new business in June 2012.
Reception
In October 2008, Telus was named one of BC's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by The Vancouver Sun, The Province and the Victoria Times-Colonist.[16]
In recent years, the company has been accused of taking actions to hinder the emergence of competition in Canadian telecommunications.[17][18][19][20][21][22] This, along with other industry concerns, has led to consumer[23] and industry[24] pressure to reform the regulatory system governing the Canadian telecommunications industry.[25][26][27]
Marketing strategies
Telus advertising has been noted for its use of whimsical, nature-themed imagery and the slogan, 'The Future is Friendly'. Many of the company's television, outdoor, in-store, and print ads feature animals including pot-bellied pigs, rabbits, a tree frog, a monkey, a lizard, a duck, fish, a hedgehog, a meerkat, an owl, and lately have been focusing on pygmy goats.[28][29] The foundations of the Telus brand originated with Clearnet Communications, including its colours, use of animal motifs and the "the future is friendly" word tag, which was developed and started by Clearnet in the late 1990s. The official Telus colours are green and purple.
2005 Christmas campaign
For the Christmas season in 2005, an ad campaign was launched involving a hippopotamus named Hazina from the Greater Vancouver Zoo, accompanied by the song "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". On May 31, 2006, the zoo was formally charged with animal cruelty for their treatment of Hazina.[30][31] Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said Telus was aware that concerns had been raised around Hazina's living conditions, which is why it stipulated that the $10,000 it paid the zoo for using Hazina go directly toward building a new enclosure for her.[32]
Sponsorship
Since 2000, Telus and its team members have contributed more than $245 million to charitable and non-profit organizations and volunteered more than 4.1 million hours of service to local communities.[33] Telus sponsors Calgary Science Centre, Science World in Vancouver, and the Odyssium in Edmonton; Both Vancouver and Edmonton science museums were subsequently renamed as Telus World of Science and Calgary was renamed to Telus Spark.[34] Telus funds the annual Kokanee Crankworx freeride mountain bike and World Ski & Snowboard festivals, both held in Whistler, British Columbia.
Telus is also active in sponsoring sports teams and organizations. Most notably, Telus has been a premier sponsor and marketing partner of Hockey Canada since 2004 and the title sponsor of Canada's national midget hockey championship, the Telus Cup, since 2005.[35] Telus has been a sponsor of Rogers Sportsnet's regional broadcasts of Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers games. Telus is active in Canadian professional golf as title sponsor of the Telus Open and the Telus Skins Game. In baseball, the naming rights to Telus Field, the home of the Edmonton Capitals of the independent North American League, currently belong to Telus.
Telus is the namesake tenant in several office buildings, including The Telus Convention Centre in Calgary, Tour Telus in Montreal, Telus Plaza in Edmonton and Telus House in Toronto.
See also
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Telus. |
- Clearnet Communications
- Cybertip.ca
- Koodo Mobile
- List of Canadian mobile phone companies
- Mike (cellular network)
- Telus TV
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 About Telus: Company history, Telus corporate website. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
- ↑ Wilson, Kevin G., Deregulating Telecommunications: U.S. and Canadian Telecommunications, 1840-1997, Rowman & Littlefield (2000) ISBN 0-8476-9825-4 page 35
- ↑ Alberta Online Encyclopedia, "Alberta Government Telephones" Alberta's Telephone Heritage
- ↑ CRTC Letter dated June 30, 1998. Retrieved February 12, 2008. Archived April 10, 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Feakins, Kathryn H., The Telus Story: Brand Management Strategies for a Customer-Focused Identity. Retrieved February 12, 2008.
- ↑ "Telus Company History". Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Hunter, Jennifer, "BC Telecom/Telus Merger", Macleans Magazine, November 2, 1998
- ↑ Canada's Second Largest Telecommunications Firm Selects Click2learn for Learning Initiative Targeting 28,000 Employees, Business Wire, November 19, 2001
- ↑ Fact sheet – Telus and the company's R.O.B. placing, Telus corporate site. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
- ↑ Verizon Sells Stake In Canada's Telus, techdirt.com. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Telus cuts subscriber access to pro-union website", CBC News, July 24, 2005
- ↑ Doctorow, Cory, "Phone company blocks access to telecoms union's website" boingboing, July 24, 2005
- ↑ "BCCLA Denounces Blocking of Website by Telus", BC Civil Liberties Association (press release), July 26, 2005
- ↑ "Alberta court grants interim injunction against posting Telus employee photos", Telus (Media Release), July 28, 2005
- ↑ "64% of Telus Workers Say No to Continued Labour Action", Telecommunications Industry News, November 20, 2005
- ↑ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 BC's Top Employers competition".
- ↑ "Canadian Mobile Phone News & Reviews - Cell phones and Accessories". MobileSyrup.com. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "Warning - Keep Broadband Competitive in Canada". Consumersforinternetcompetition.com. 2009-12-11. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "CBC News - Technology & Science - Broadband campaign draws 85,000 letters to MPs". Cbc.ca. 2009-11-04. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "Coalition for competitive broadband| Campaign for Competitive Broadband Reports Unprecedented Demonstration of Grassroots Concern". Newswire.ca. 2010-03-05. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "Internet Industry supports call for fair access and competition in Internet and wireless services". Cata.ca. 2009-11-02. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "Microsoft Word - Coalition - Comments on Bell Telus Petitions FINAL _4May09_ _2_ _3_.doc" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "crtcscandal.com". crtcscandal.com. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "Microsoft Word - Industry_Response_to_Bell_Telus_Request_20090406_v2.doc" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "PIAC | Deferral Accounts: Supreme Court decision shows need of legislative reform". Piac.ca. 2009-09-18. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "CBC News - Technology & Science - Canadian broadband blasted by Harvard study". Cbc.ca. 2009-10-15. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ "OECD Broadband Portal". Oecd.org. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
- ↑ Kirbyson, Geoff, "Telus Mobility animal instincts", brandchannel.com, February 2, 2004
- ↑ Marck, Paul, "It's a jungle out there: Canadian telecom companies embrace the animal in them to hawk their products", Edmonton Journal, February 22, 2006
- ↑ "Greater Vancouver Zoo Charged with Animal Cruelty", BC Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Animal Sense Magazine), Fall/Winter, 2006
- ↑ "Zoo criticized for baby hippo barn", CBC News, August 13, 2005
- ↑ Zoo faces charges of cruelty to hippo
- ↑ Telus Community Annual Report
- ↑ Science World facility renamed ‘Telus World of Science’ as part of $9-million sponsorship deal
- ↑ Hockey Canada: Premier Marketing Partners
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