History Of Telus

The origin of TELUS begins with the Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) which was established in 1906 by the Liberal government to assist in the acquisition and operations of Bell Canada for telephone service in Alberta. However, it was felt that Bell Canada favoured central Canada resulting in inadequate services for Alberta's growing settlements and government then commissioned AGT to develop a telephone services for the entire province. At the time Edmonton had its own city-owned telephone utility, EdTel, which contracted with AGT for long distance services.

In 1990 the government of Alberta sets up a holding company, Telus Communications (Alberta), to help facilitate the privatization of the crown corporation AGT and is the first time the name Telus is used; the name is derived from a combination of "telecommunications" and "universality" which was meant to suggest a company that was both friendly and forward thinking. (Feakins) In 1995 Telus purchases EdTel from the City of Edmonton for $468 million and ended the era of government-owned telecommunications carriers in Alberta. It is in 1996 that Telus becomes a brand replacing AGT and EdTel.

Finally in 1999 rather than just in Alberta, the rest of Canada now begins to know the name Telus due to a merger with Telus Corporation and British Columbia based BC Telecom (BC Tel). BC Tel had only been formed in 1993 as a holding company for British Columbia Telephone Company which services British Columbia with the exception of the City of Prince Rupert and is controlled by GTE Corp. with an ownership of just over 50 percent. GTE Corp. is the third largest telephone company in the United States and is from Stanford Conn. The new entity is called BCT. Telus, keeping brand name of Telus and with the merger Telus immediately became the second largest telephone company operating in Canada with 22% of the market share versus Bell Canada's, owned by BCE Inc., market share of 42%.

This transformation was due to the innovative, determined spirit of the CEO of the recently privatized Alberta company, George Petty. Petty told his Telus Corp. shareholders that he wanted the Alberta based telecommunications company to become one of the world's "premier communications" companies. Petty also realized that Telus was facing challenges says Iain Grant