Auction starts today
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The strings attached to the federal government’s 3.5 GHz spectrum, whose auction beginning today will repurpose portions of it for mobile wireless use, include a speed-to-deployment component that complements federal policy to accelerate connectivity throughout the country by the end of the decade.
Winners of the auction, which Innovation Canada said will take “several weeks,” will have to deploy the spectrum largely within the 2030 timeframe for which the federal government hopes to provide access to all Canadians to high-speed internet.
While the focus is largely on what the 3.5 GHz spectrum will do for…
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VANCOUVER — Telus today announced its new sustainability-linked bond framework, which aligns the company’s financing strategy with its goal of achieving operational net carbon neutrality across all of its global operations by 2030, says the company’s press release.
Developed in accordance with the International Capital Market Association’s Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles 2020 (SLBP), the framework outlines the process Telus intends to follow when issuing new sustainability-linked bonds. Leading independent environmental, social and governance (ESG) research, ratings and analytics firm Sustainalytics has reviewed Telus’s framework and is of the opinion it aligns with the SLBP, according to Telus’s press release.
A copy…
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TORONTO – Telus Health, which is now Canada’s largest health IT company and the leading provider of virtual care across the country, today introduced Telus Health MyCare following the recent acquisition of Babylon Health Canada.
Previously known as Babylon by Telus Health, Telus Health MyCare is an evolution of virtual care for Canadians offering a robust suite of health and wellbeing services and new and improved features, says the announcement. “More Canadians are accessing preventative tools to guide changes in lifestyle for improved overall health, Telus Health MyCare provides increased access to high-quality primary care with locally-licensed physicians in numerous…
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TORONTO — Telus Health’s mobile health clinics are being used to deliver Covid-19 testing and vaccinations for at-risk and vulnerable residents in Waterloo, Toronto and Ottawa, Telus announced today.
Through Telus’s Health for Good program, the specially equipped clinics on wheels are providing the tests and vaccines in partnership with Waterloo’s Sanguen Health Centre, Toronto’s Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, and Ottawa’s Inner City Health.
“Through relationships with local community centres, homeless shelters, and congregate housing facilities, the clinics have administered more than 1,500 doses of the vaccine to at-risk Ontarians, conducted 15,400 Covid-19 tests/assessments, and have supported nearly 30,000…
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VANCOUVER — Telus announced this week it has set new “science-based greenhouse gas” (GHG) emissions reduction targets, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), saying it’s the first national telecom in Canada to do so.
Telus says the company has committed to:
reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 46% by 2030 starting from 2019 (this includes biogenic emissions and removals from bioenergy feedstocks);
reducing absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from business travel and employee commuting by 46% from 2019 to 2030; and
reducing scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, capital goods and…
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Why Telus is dumping copper, quickly
By Greg O’Brien
EDMONTON – Telus is spending big over the next couple of years to push fibre optics more deeply into its network than ever before, perhaps even more deeply than most other telcos around the world.
Zainul Mawji, the company’s executive vice-president home solutions (and one of the highest-ranking women in Canadian telecom), has been at the tip of the company’s fibre spear since it began its PureFibre push in 2013. “I was employee number two on that particular foray in our organization,” she told Cartt.ca in a late May interview.
“We had very high…
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VANCOUVER and TORONTO — Telus Ventures announced today it is investing in a newly created Black Innovation Fund, which was launched today by Black Innovation Capital (BIC) and BDC Capital.
The fund is focused on investing in Canadian pre-seed and seed stage technology companies founded by Black entrepreneurs. The initial close of funding amounts to $6.4 million, with investors including RBC Ventures and Globalive Capital in addition to Telus Ventures.
“As one of Canada’s most active venture funds, Telus Ventures holds itself to an extremely high standard for finding and funding new and emerging technologies. It should be no different in…
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LEDUC, AB — Telus Communications announced today it is investing $25 million to expand its PureFibre network in Leduc, Alta., which will provide direct connectivity for 90% of the community’s homes and businesses to Telus’s gigabit-enabled, fibre-optic network.
Construction on the PureFibre network in Leduc, which is just south of Edmonton, is already underway, and Telus says it anticipates the majority of homes and businesses will be connected by next spring.
For more, please click here.
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By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – Like deja vu, the immediate impact of a major decision by the CRTC has unfurled in the days immediately following — but the reactions are the reverse of what happened in August 2019.
When the CRTC that summer decided to slash the bulk internet rates smaller providers pay for large network access – and make the rates retroactive so some serious back pay was supposed to go to those independents – the large telecoms announced cuts to investments, including in rural areas. Smaller providers, rejoicing, immediately slashed retail internet prices.
Following Thursday’s decision to go back…
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LONGUEUIL, Que. — Quebec-based third-party Internet service provider EBOX is joining other independent ISPs who are calling for the resignation or firing of CRTC chairman Ian Scott following the Commission’s reversal last week of its August 2019 decision to lower the third-party Internet access (TPIA) rates paid by the small independents to Canada’s largest carriers.
Last week, TekSavvy asked for Scott to be removed from his position (TekSavvy has also petitioned the federal cabinet to overrule the CRTC’s rate decision) and VMedia called for Scott’s resignation.
Now today, EBOX issued a press release also calling for Scott…
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