BURNABY – While the second quarter press release still intimated Telus may not launch its terrestrial digital television service, CEO Darren Entwistle told financial analysts today in a conference call that Telus TV’s launch is a matter of when, not if.
The when will come once the company’s labour problem is finalized. While the company has imposed its latest contract offer after 4.5 years of going without a contract with its workers, the union called a general strike.
Today, the company said 70% of its unionized workers nationally are still coming in to work and that the two sides will begin talking again sometime in the next week or so.
But until everyone’s on the job, launching a service like digital television simply has to wait.
Calling the work stoppage “highly lamentable,” Entwistle admitted that despite best efforts from workers and management, the strike has “limited our operational capability to pursue new endeavors,” he said, responding directly to a question on when Telus TV is coming.
He added Telus is still doing much work and research, though, on its IPTV supplier and said that while Alcatel is currently its “middleware partner,” that could change.
“It could be Alcatel or Microsoft or a smaller company which specializes in this,” he said. Entwistle noted that many telcos – like Bell Canada and SBC and others – have opted to go with Microsoft, but, “that’s not a decision we’ve made at this time.”
What Telus wants is a supplier that will “allow us to differentiate our (TV) services from the incumbent other than by price,” meaning the product and service package from Telus TV will be different from what Shaw Cable offers out west, while pricing will be “disciplined,” Entwistle added.
– Greg O’Brien
