EDMONTON and CALGARY – Telus announced today it is investing $700 million to connect hundreds of Alberta homes and businesses to its fibre optic cable network.
Today’s announcement is part of the telco’s three-year, $2 billion infrastructure and facilities investment made a year ago. Since 2000, Telus has invested $26 billion in operations and technology throughout the province
This year’s infrastructure investment of $700 million will be used to connect homes and business to Telus’s Gigabit Passive Optical network (GPON), which offers internet speeds of up to 50 MB per second, and to further extend…
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BURNABY, B.C. – Lee Riggs was elected president of the Telecommunications Workers Union during the recent 2013 Annual TWU Convention which took place in Calgary, Alberta, from May 6-10.
Riggs, a 50-year-old native of Kelowna, B.C., was hired at 19 to work for BC. Tel (later to become Telus). He has been a labour activist his entire career and has held many positions within the TWU. He was first elected as a TWU business agent in 2006.
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VANCOUVER – As thousands of Telus employees get ready to take part in the company’s eighth annual day of giving this weekend, Telus announced today they are extending the invitation to customers and business partners to take part in the event.
On May 25, almost 13,000 Telus employees and friends will volunteer to help with more than 500 activities all over Canada, such helping at children's hospitals, feeding homeless citizens, sorting thousands of pounds of food bank donations and completing ecological face lifts at community parks.”
From now until June 15, Canadians are invited to…
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TORONTO – Mobilicity announced today that its debtholders have approved the plan for Telus to acquire the wireless carrier for $380 million.
“This is a significant step towards final approval of the plan through which the business, combined with the financial strength of Telus, can be continued in a way that will benefit our customers and employees,” said Mobilicity president and COO Stewart Lyons in a prepared statement.
In a separate release,Telus CMO David Fuller said of today’s vote: “Today’s positive vote is an important step on the road to allowing Telus to sustain service…
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BOSTON and TORONTO – Telus and app management company Apperian have teamed up to launch a new mobile application management (MAM) service that lets Canadian businesses protect and manage their corporate apps and data being used on employees’ own mobile devices.
Apperian’s cloud-based EASE platform lets IT managers securely deploy and manage their company’s apps on mobile devices. Instead of installing additional software, the MAM service can be used to set up a corporate app store catalog which employees can search and install the corporate apps they need.
“Mobile Application Management is changing the enterprise…
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TORONTO – While Telus awaits federal approval of its acquisition of Mobilicity for $380 million announced last week, Wind Mobile has wasted no time in launching a promotion trying to lure away Mobilicity’s 250,000 subscribers.
A tweet earlier today from @WIND Mobile said, “#Mobilicity clients, don’t sweat the future of your plans & services. Switch to WIND & receive up to $365 in savings.” The tweet includes a link to an online promotion, which features a large graphic of a life preserver, with Wind offering to “help” Mobilicity customers switch to Wind with one month…
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OTTAWA – Participants in the 700 MHz spectrum auction will run amok of anti-collusion rules if they speak with the media after they file their applications on June 11 and until they make their final licence payments, Industry Canada has determined.
The revelation comes in the department’s answers to clarification questions which were published Tuesday, May 21. Question 2.13 asks “When is the ‘auction process’ considered to have started?”
The following is what Industry Canada had to say.
“Any communications from an applicant and its affiliates, associates or beneficial owners or their representatives that discloses or comments on…
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VANCOUVER – Telus announced Thursday that, pending some government and debtholder approvals, it will acquire Mobilicity for $380 million.
If the deal receives the required approvals, it would ensure continued service to Mobilicity’s 250,000 customers without the risk of disruption, says the press release the companies issued.
Without this deal, Mobilicity would likely end up seeking bankruptcy protection in short order. Of course, it remains to be seen what government thinks of this and whether or not it will grant the request to shift Mobilicity’s spectrum to Telus immediately. DAVE, Mobilicity’s parent company, purchased the spectrum for $240 million in 2008…
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NETWORK EXPANSION NEWS
Launches this week:
MTS launches 4G LTE service in Grand Beach and Victoria Beach, Man.
WINNIPEG – MTS announced Friday it has completed its 4G LTE wireless network expansion to Grand Beach and Victoria Beach, two of six rural Manitoba communities that are scheduled to receive MTS’s 4G LTE network service in 2013.
Earlier this month, LINK LINK LINK MTS announced plans to expand its 4G LTE wireless network to six more communities in 2013, including Selkirk, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Ste. Anne, Grand Beach and Victoria Beach.
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TORONTO – While analysts view today’s announcement that Telus has agreed to purchase floundering wireless newcomer Mobilicity for $380 million as a win for both companies, the bigger, as-yet unanswered question is whether or not Industry Canada and the Competition Bureau will allow the incumbent telco to buy a new entrant, a move that flies in the face of Industry Canada’s plan to have four wireless players in each region of the country.
“The situation is getting messier for the government,” says Scotia Capital analyst Jeff Fan. “The bottom line is this makes it less likely…
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