Telus Announces $500M Infrastructure Investment

The second largest telecom in Canada, Telus, has announced plans today to invest up to $500 million in expanding infrastructure in British Columbia and parts of Alberta. The company also outlined plans to build a more eco-friendly datacenter likely to be located in BC.

Telus said, “This investment is expected to ensure a smooth transition to long-term evolution technology, the emerging worldwide standard for 4G wireless networks.” 

Telus is forecasting total revenue to increase by up to 6% year over year to $10 billion by the end of 2009, with capital spending up by as much as 12% to $2.1 billion.

Telus has added many new subscribers in the last year because of its move to offer more advanced smartphones at reasonable prices. Telus is also reportedly going to convert its CDMA based network to the worldwide standard of GSM in the next couple of years in a shared upgrade with BCE, thus eleminating the Rogers GSM monopoly in Canada.

Telus’ total revenue in Q4 2008 was up 5.3% to $2.45 billion, but total profits were down 29% to $285 million during the same period.

In related news, you may have noticed Telus seemed to block YouTube access on the older BlackBerry Pearl and Curve after enabling the feature while readying the service for the BlackBerry Storm launch.

Yesterday, a Telus representative told me the service should be working and that it was merely a short technical problem. Telus BB customers will be relieved to hear the company has not blocked YouTube access on the Pearl or Curve as the feature is now working.

The Canadian telecom market remains controlled by a few large companies that continue to keep a tight grip on the Canadian telecom industry. Rogers, who currently has a complete monopoly over the GSM networks in Canada, still does not provide unlimited mobile Internet for any price.

Telus offers a $30 unlimited mobile Internet plan, but some customers have received contract termination letters for excessive usage.