 |
   |
     |
|
|
Customer Business Units |
 Download this section
(1.8 MB, PDF) |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
| TELUS Mobility | |
Leading the way for TELUS Mobility is GEORGE COPE:"I'm proud to support the team of more than 4,000 professionals across Canada that make up TELUS Mobility, the fastest-growing and highest-revenue wireless communications company in the nation. Uniting the wireless operations of TELUS, Clearnet and QuébecTel gives us the power to enhance our leadership position in the Canadian wireless marketplace." |
|
| TELUS Mobility team members in our Montréal office Clockwise (from upper left): Claude Morin, Marie-Andrée Legault, Evens Rouzard, Martin Poirier and Caroline Labrosse |
 |
The transaction was the largest in Canadian telecommunications history and propelled TELUS overnight to the forefront of Canada's fast-growing wireless industry. We created a national wireless company that leads the industry in overall revenue, revenue growth, revenue per subscriber and wireless spectrum position.
The new TELUS Mobility ended 2000 with more than 2.1 million subscribers across Canada, pro forma annual revenue of more than $1.7 billion, more than 4,000 employees, and existing digital coverage of 22.6 million of the 31 million total Canadian population, which TELUS has licenses to cover.
> Creating the New TELUS Mobility
Building a national wireless entity able to pursue the high-growth market for national wireless voice, data and Internet services was a strategic priority for the TELUS group of companies. Acquiring Clearnet offered speed to market while averting the risks and time-to-market delays associated with building a greenfield, facilities-based digital wireless operation east of Alberta.
Clearnet brings a strong national wireless management team. TELUS successfully engaged Clearnet President and CEO George Cope and the rest of the Clearnet management team to lead the new TELUS Mobility. This experienced group had steered the evolution of Clearnet into one of the most successful wireless start-ups in North America.
Clearnet was an excellent strategic fit with TELUS Mobility. It operated digital PCS on the same Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology platform as well as the unique Mike digital ESMR network. TELUS Mobility offered the most extensive network coverage, largest customer base and leading dealer based distribution capability in Western Canada, while Clearnet offered two state-of-the-art national digital networks, a rapidly growing customer base, and extensive established retail and dealer distribution systems on a national basis.
Combining Clearnet with TELUS Mobility provides TELUS with significant economies of scale and potential financial synergies. These include savings in capital expenditures (e.g. redeploying duplicate cell sites, better infrastructure pricing, etc.) and operating expenses (e.g. transmission back-haul and roaming), revenue synergies (e.g. roaming) and the potential to benefit from the shelter provided by Clearnet's tax loss carry-forwards. Already, TELUS Mobility has obtained concessions of approximately $400 million over five years from infrastructure suppliers.
> TELUS Mobility in Action
We are rapidly integrating the wireless operations of TELUS, Clearnet and QuébecTel Mobilité to form the new, national TELUS Mobility.
For Clintar Groundskeeping, a company offering landscape maintenance and snow removal services across Southwestern Ontario, keeping its employees in instant contact is essential.
"All of our employees are field workers, so a dependable mobile communications system is critical," says Clintar owner Mike Malleck.
Last year, Clintar purchased 75 of TELUS Mobility's digital wireless Mike phones, which integrate a digital phone, Mike's Direct Connect® two-way radio, paging and other services into a single handset. "Mike service allows me to be in instant contact with every single employee at all times," says Malleck. All Clintar field workers have Mike's Direct Connect capability - eliminating the need to equip every worker with a cell phone - while supervisors and managers are equipped with Mike's Direct Connect and digital phone capability. Rather than hauling around both a phone and a radio, they simply carry a Mike phone. "Thanks to Mike service, we're seeing an estimated savings of 30 to 35 per cent in our mobile communications costs," says Malleck. "I chose Mike's service as a cost savings measure, but I've found the convenience of instant contact to be just as important. That means I can dispatch snow removal operations right away, right from the middle of a snowstorm." Mike Malleck, franchise owner, Clintar Groundskeeping |
TELUS Mobility's distribution networks are being combined, allowing us to leverage TELUS' vast Western Canada distribution channels, Clearnet's broad national retail and dealer presence and QuébecTel Mobilité's dealer network in Eastern Québec while reallocating resources to further develop our channels in new markets nationwide.
TELUS Mobility operations across Canada have begun to operate under the strong TELUS brand name, while incorporating the best elements of Clearnet's renowned national advertising efforts. Well-known Clearnet products, such as Mike and Pay & Talk prepaid, are being retained nationally.
TELUS Mobility operated a CDMA network with Nortel infrastructure in Alberta and British Columbia, while Clearnet's national CDMA network operated on Lucent equipment. These networks are being rationalized, with TELUS Mobility's network supported by Nortel in Alberta and B.C., and Lucent infrastructure in the rest of Canada. This allows redeployment of Lucent equipment for, among other possibilities, the buildout of new markets outside Alberta and B.C. We are also investing in a significant expansion over the next 18 months to approximately match our digital footprint in Alberta and B.C. with that of our extensive analogue cellular network in those provinces.
Prior to the acquisition of Clearnet, TELUS Mobility customers roamed on the Bell Wireless Alliance's networks outside of Alberta and B.C., while Clearnet customers roamed, in non-digital areas of Canada, onto the Rogers AT&T Wireless analogue network. We expect to complete the migration of TELUS Mobility customers in Ontario and Québec onto our digital network in the first half of 2001, and to migrate most digital TELUS Mobility customers to our networks to displace analogue roaming shortly thereafter. We expect significant cost savings in reduced roaming and back-haul expenses. In future, we intend that Verizon Wireless will be TELUS Mobility's principal U.S. roaming partner on PCS and cellular, potentially lowering U.S. roaming costs, improving the competitiveness of roaming packages and increasing in-bound roaming revenue. Nextel will remain TELUS Mobility's U.S. roaming partner for Mike service.
> Maintaining our Leading Spectrum Position
After year-end, TELUS successfully acquired all five of the 10 MHz regional licenses on which it actively bid in Industry Canada's PCS spectrum auction. TELUS bids were approximately $356 million for licenses in Southern Ontario (including Toronto), Southern Québec (including Montréal), Eastern Ontario (including Ottawa), Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island and Manitoba, with a total population of 17.4 million (based on 1996 statistics). These were the largest markets that TELUS Mobility was eligible to bid for, given the regulatory limitation of the 55 MHz spectrum cap, and were acquired at attractive valuations, particularly relative to prices paid in recently completed U.S. spectrum auctions. We now have approximately 55 MHz of spectrum in all Canada's major urban areas and have maintained our national spectrum leadership position.
The winning bidders in the PCS spectrum auction were mainly incumbents, effectively maintaining an up-to-four-player industry. With the competitive environment maintained, TELUS Mobility can be aggressive in expanding our national digital coverage and investing in our leading wireless Internet services and technology.
> Building on our Strong Growth
In 2000, TELUS Mobility1 added 474,000 subscribers, bringing our total customer base to 2,156,200, a 20 per cent increase in net additions and a 27 per cent increase in our total subscriber base compared to 1999. Total pro forma revenues were more than $1.7 billion, making TELUS Mobility the leading wireless company in Canada in terms of revenue. We also led the Canadian wireless industry in revenue growth, with annual pro forma revenue growing by $346 million in 2000 compared to 1999, capturing a phenomenal 40 per cent of incremental revenue growth of the four major wireless service providers in the Canadian market.
TELUS Mobility has the largest CDMA footprint in Canada and, with our differentiated iDEN network, marketed under the Mike brand, we are the only iDEN ESMR operator in Canada. Our digital networks now cover 73 per cent of the Canadian population, up significantly from 16 per cent at the beginning of 2000. At the end of 2000, 57 per cent of our subscriber base was on one of our digital networks - believed to be the highest percentage digitization of any Canadian operator which also offers incumbent analogue cellular services. Of these digital subscribers, approximately 56 per cent were equipped with dot-com-ready phones, allowing those customers to take advantage of TELUS Mobility wireless Internet services introduced across Canada in 2000.
> Moving Forward
In 2001, we will continue to successfully integrate TELUS Mobility's national operations. We plan to activate approximately one million new customers in 2001 and contain churn on the subscriber base so as to yield approximately 500,000 net additions.
We will focus on profitable customer growth. We intend to continue achieving industry-leading revenue growth through network expansion and digitization, improved distribution, new national Internet products and services, and management of our PCS postpaid/prepaid mix. We plan to expand our digital network to cover an even greater proportion of the Canadian population, and to further increase the penetration of our subscriber base with dot-com-ready phones to ensure that an increasing number of our customers can benefit from our quickly expanding roster of wireless Internet services.
1 Pro forma numbers reflect combined current and historical results for TELUS Mobility, Clearnet and QuébecTel Mobilité for the full year 2000
TELUS Mobility operations across Canada have begun to operate under the strong TELUS brand name, while incorporating the best elements of Clearnet's renowned national advertising efforts. Well-known Clearnet products, such as Mike and Pay & Talk prepaid, are being retained nationally.
TELUS Mobility operated a CDMA network with Nortel infrastructure in Alberta and British Columbia, while Clearnet's national CDMA network operated on Lucent equipment. These networks are being rationalized, with TELUS Mobility's network supported by Nortel in Alberta and B.C., and Lucent infrastructure in the rest of Canada. This allows redeployment of Lucent equipment for, among other possibilities, the buildout of new markets outside Alberta and B.C. We are also investing in a significant expansion over the next 18 months to approximately match our digital footprint in Alberta and B.C. with that of our extensive analogue cellular network in those provinces.
Prior to the acquisition of Clearnet, TELUS Mobility customers roamed on the Bell Wireless Alliance's networks outside of Alberta and B.C., while Clearnet customers roamed, in non-digital areas of Canada, onto the Rogers AT&T Wireless analogue network. We expect to complete the migration of TELUS Mobility customers in Ontario and Québec onto our digital network in the first half of 2001, and to migrate most digital TELUS Mobility customers to our networks to displace analogue roaming shortly thereafter. We expect significant cost savings in reduced roaming and back-haul expenses. In future, we intend that Verizon Wireless will be TELUS Mobility's principal U.S. roaming partner on PCS and cellular, potentially lowering U.S. roaming costs, improving the competitiveness of roaming packages and increasing in-bound roaming revenue. Nextel will remain TELUS Mobility's U.S. roaming partner for Mike service.
> Maintaining our Leading Spectrum Position
After year-end, TELUS successfully acquired all five of the 10 MHz regional licenses on which it actively bid in Industry Canada's PCS spectrum auction. TELUS bids were approximately $356 million for licenses in Southern Ontario (including Toronto), Southern Québec (including Montréal), Eastern Ontario (including Ottawa), Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island and Manitoba, with a total population of 17.4 million (based on 1996 statistics). These were the largest markets that TELUS Mobility was eligible to bid for, given the regulatory limitation of the 55 MHz spectrum cap, and were acquired at attractive valuations, particularly relative to prices paid in recently completed U.S. spectrum auctions. We now have approximately 55 MHz of spectrum in all Canada's major urban areas and have maintained our national spectrum leadership position.
The winning bidders in the PCS spectrum auction were mainly incumbents, effectively maintaining an up-to-four-player industry. With the competitive environment maintained, TELUS Mobility can be aggressive in expanding our national digital coverage and investing in our leading wireless Internet services and technology.
> Building on our Strong Growth
In 2000, TELUS Mobility1 added 474,000 subscribers, bringing our total customer base to 2,156,200, a 20 per cent increase in net additions and a 27 per cent increase in our total subscriber base compared to 1999. Total pro forma revenues were more than $1.7 billion, making TELUS Mobility the leading wireless company in Canada in terms of revenue. We also led the Canadian wireless industry in revenue growth, with annual pro forma revenue growing by $346 million in 2000 compared to 1999, capturing a phenomenal 40 per cent of incremental revenue growth of the four major wireless service providers in the Canadian market.
TELUS Mobility has the largest CDMA footprint in Canada and, with our differentiated iDEN network, marketed under the Mike brand, we are the only iDEN ESMR operator in Canada. Our digital networks now cover 73 per cent of the Canadian population, up significantly from 16 per cent at the beginning of 2000. At the end of 2000, 57 per cent of our subscriber base was on one of our digital networks - believed to be the highest percentage digitization of any Canadian operator which also offers incumbent analogue cellular services. Of these digital subscribers, approximately 56 per cent were equipped with dot-com-ready phones, allowing those customers to take advantage of TELUS Mobility wireless Internet services introduced across Canada in 2000.
> Moving Forward
In 2001, we will continue to successfully integrate TELUS Mobility's national operations. We plan to activate approximately one million new customers in 2001 and contain churn on the subscriber base so as to yield approximately 500,000 net additions.
We will focus on profitable customer growth. We intend to continue achieving industry-leading revenue growth through network expansion and digitization, improved distribution, new national Internet products and services, and management of our PCS postpaid/prepaid mix. We plan to expand our digital network to cover an even greater proportion of the Canadian population, and to further increase the penetration of our subscriber base with dot-com-ready phones to ensure that an increasing number of our customers can benefit from our quickly expanding roster of wireless Internet services.
1 Pro forma numbers reflect combined current and historical results for TELUS Mobility, Clearnet and QuébecTel Mobilité for the full year 2000
| TELUS Mobility — The Industry In 2000, the Canadian wireless industry experienced a record 5.9 per cent penetration gain, bringing the penetration of wireless services across the Canadian population to 28.4 per cent. This compares to 22.5 per cent penetration at the end of 1999, which resulted from a then-record five per cent penetration gain over 1998. To put the year 2000 net additions of 1.8 million in the context of overall industry growth, it took almost 10 years for the industry to add its first 1.8 million customers following the 1985 launch of wireless service in Canada. Industry analysts generally expect robust growth in the wireless sector to continue over the next five years. Current estimates for wireless penetration in 2005 range from 57 to 70 per cent, representing a gain of 8.8 to 12.8 million new wireless subscriptions over this period. It is considered likely that future wireless subscriptions will reach, or possibly even exceed, 100 per cent of the population over the longer term. While the addressable market for mobile wireless devices, excluding the very young and old, is in the range of 80 to 85 per cent of the population, it is possible for customers to utilize two or even more wireless devices. Making such penetration increasingly possible is the emergence of wireless telemetry applications providing machine-to-machine communications. |
 |
|
 disclaimer security copyright privacy |
  |