TELUS is one of the newest entrants on the national scene, yet we are building on more than 100 years of history in Canada. Our company was created in February 1999, when Alberta-based TELUS Corporation and BC-based BC TELECOM joined in a merger of equals.

TELUS history       BC TEL history      

TELUS history

We've served Albertans for the better part of a century. Some proud milestones along the way include:

1998
TELUS Corporation and BC TELECOM announce a proposed merger. This is the first step toward creating a leading national telecommunications company.

1997
TELUS given approval by the CRTC to commence multimedia service trials in Edmonton and Calgary.

1996
Canada's first Internet Yellow Pages™ service launched -- alberta.com

1996
The TELUS "master brand" introduced, bringing products and companies under one unified identity. The ED TEL and AGT brands are retired.

1995
Consumer Internet service is launched.

1995
TELUS acquired ED TEL from the City of Edmonton for $467 million.

1994
Long distance telephone competition commenced in Alberta.

1992
North America's first digital cellular network launched.

1991
The Province of Alberta sold its remaining ownership interest in TELUS for $870 million.

1990
Edmonton Telephones Corporation (ED TEL) established as an arms-length subsidiary company of the City of Edmonton.

1990
TELUS Corporation established, following the reorganization of the Alberta Government Telephones Commission, becoming the parent company of AGT. The sale of TELUS shares marked the largest initial public offering in Canadian history up to this time, raising $896 million.

1986
Conventional competitive cellular phone service launched in Alberta.

1982
Canada's first cellular telephone system introduced to serve Alberta resource industries.

1980
Canada's first digital switching units incorporated in parts of the network.

1975
The world's then largest "Centrex" system installed for the Government of Alberta.

1969
The first "911" system in Canada introduced.

1967
The first touch-tone service in western Canada introduced.

1958
The Alberta Government Telephones Commission was established, ending direct government management of the provincial system.

1928
The first long distance call between Alberta and overseas.

1908
Automatic telephone equipment introduced.

1906
The Province of Alberta commenced operation of the provincial phone system after acquiring the Alberta assets of the Bell Telephone Company.

1904
The City of Edmonton purchased the Edmonton District Telephone Company.

1887
The first long distance call, between Edmonton and Battleford, Saskatchewan.

1885
Alberta's first telephone call, between Fort Edmonton and the St. Albert mission.

BC TEL history

Telephones were first installed in BC in 1878 at two different locations on Vancouver Island. William Wall, a mechanic at the Wellington Colliery of Dunsmuir, Diggle and Company, manufactured two telephones and connected them to a line between the mine and loading docks at Departure Bay, a few miles away. At about the same time, Robert McMicking, superintendent of British Columbia Telegraphs, leased two telephones from the Bell Telephone Company of Canada and installed them on a line between his home and an office in Victoria.

Telephones on the mainland soon followed. A missionary working in a remote Indian fishing village near Prince Rupert hung a line between the village store and the sawmill. A contractor working on the new Canadian Pacific Railway strung wire through the Fraser Canyon so he could talk with his supervisors.

From these modest beginnings, a new industry emerged. In 1880, the Victoria and Esquimalt Telephone Company was established - BC's first. By the turn of the century, there were as many as 45 small phone companies in BC.

Perhaps the most ambitious was the Vernon and Nelson Telephone Company. With its incorporation on April 20, 1891, a group of telephone visionaries began the realization of a dream - to build a province-wide telephone service. The British Columbia Telephone Company traces its direct corporate history to that dream.

In 1904, after buying up a number of the smaller telephone companies throughout the province, the Vernon and Nelson Telephone Company changed its name to the British Columbia Telephone Company, Limited. The name - British Columbia Telephone Company - was established in 1923, under a federal charter that the company had obtained in 1916. This marked the start of BC TEL which remained relatively unchanged until May 1, 1993, when BC TEL reorganized under a holding company, BC TELECOM Inc.

Concurrent with the creation of the holding company, the telephone operating company changed its legal name from British Columbia Telephone Company to the more familiar BC TEL.