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TELUS guarantees spam free text messaging service - no questions asked
Vancouver, B.C. – TELUS today confirmed that wireless clients have never been required to pay for spam text messages and announced an even easier way for clients to receive credits for any spam text messages they might receive. Beginning August 24, clients can simply send the spam message to 7726 with the word SPAM in the body of the message and their account will be adjusted automatically. The credit will be processed with no questions asked of the client by TELUS. It is important to clarify that this change has no impact on any TELUS mobile email services. Contrary to some reports, TELUS has always believed that it is not fair for customers to be charged for spam messages. Our policy has always been to credit customers for spam messages they have received. TELUS uses sophisticated spam filters to eliminate most of these types of messages from reaching clients; however, TELUS further guarantees that customers will not pay for spam text messages. On May 5, TELUS began advertising a change to the way incoming text messages are to be billed beginning August 24. In addition, TELUS began directly informing affected clients via bill notification messages on June 24. The overall text messaging rate changes affect a small segment of TELUS' wireless customer base and are limited to those who do not currently subscribe to a text messaging plan. Those customers currently pay $0.15 to send a text message as well as $0.15 to receive text messages that originate from a computer or the Internet. Beginning August 24, the $0.15 per charge will also apply to text messages that originate from other cell phones. Charging for incoming text messages is a standard practice in North America with most of the major U.S. carriers charging $0.20. That is a 33% premium compared to TELUS. TELUS customers who subscribe to any text messaging plans will continue to receive unlimited incoming text messages free of charge. Customers can choose to subscribe to a text messaging plan from prices starting as low as $3 per month which includes 30 outgoing text messages and unlimited incoming messages. To develop new broadband technologies and build a network that will be the envy of the world, the Canadian telecommunications industry faces significant investments. Over the past 8 years, TELUS has invested $54 billion in Canada and created thousands of new jobs across the country. In addition, we will be investing even more with the current AWS spectrum auction to bring Canadians advanced wireless services in the near future. TELUS is standing high bidder on a series of national AWS spectrum licenses of over $850M.About TELUS TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.2 billion of annual revenue and 11.2 million customer connections including 5.6 million wireless subscribers, 4.4 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video. In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and alumni have contributed $113 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered more than 2.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Eight TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead our local philanthropic initiatives. For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.
For more information, please contact: Shawn Hall (604) 697-8176 shawn.hall@telus.com
