Telus Mobility

Telus Mobility

The future is friendly.
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Mobile network operator
Founded	Alberta (1984)
Headquarters	Alberta, Canada
Products	Feature phones, mobile broadband modems, smartphones (Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Windows Phone), tablet computers
Services	CDMA2000 (including EV-DO), HSPA (including HSPA+), LTE, mobile broadband, SMS, telephony
Parent	Telus
Website	www.telusmobility.com/en/

Telus Mobility is a division of Telus Communications which sells wireless services in Canada on its numerous networks. They currently have three different networks based on four different technologies: CDMA, HSPA+, and LTE on its mainstream networks, plus iDEN via its Mike division. As of Q2 2011, Telus is Canada's third largest cellphone provider with a subscriber base of over 7 million, including over 5.8 million or 82% on postpaid and over 1.2 million or 17% on prepaid.

Telus Mobility has a partnership with Public Mobile to allow the latter's customers to roam on Telus' CDMA network in Quebec, Ontario and parts of Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. Since 2008, Telus has operated a MVNO named Koodo Mobile. Koodo is targeted at high school, college and university students, much like the now-defunct Amp'd Mobile Canada that preceded it in 2007.

History

1980s

Telus Mobility was formed in 1982 to provide an analog mobile network for Alberta's natural resources industries. It was the first mobile phone network in Canada. Analog services were available to the general public since 1986.

1990s

In 1992, Telus launched North America's first digital mobile network. After acquiring BC Telecom in 1998, Telus Mobility expanded its coverage to British Columbia. The company's website went online on October 14, 1999. The following year, acquired Clearnet Communications and QuébecTel to expand its coverage to the eastern provinces. All these acquisitions, along with a tower sharing agreement with then-primarily Eastern Canada based Bell Mobility, allowed Telus Mobility to serve a coast to coast CDMA network in all Canadian provinces. Bell and Telus continued their partnership for future network construction.

2000s

Telus Mobility discontinued its AMPS analog network in February 2008, and launched its HSPA+ network in November 2009. Following both events, Telus began a slow phasing out of CDMA devices, especially those that support both AMPS and CDMA technologies.

2010s

Telus Mobility launched its LTE network in February 2012, and it stopped selling CDMA devices, except those on clearance.

Networks

Telus Mobility partners with Bell Mobility to operates three different kinds of nationwide networks in Canada. Both companies offer a legacy CDMA network from coast to coast in Canada's provinces, as well as an HSPA+ network with newer technology but slightly less coverage, and an LTE network which is only available in certain cities. Telus Mobility also sells services on an Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) via its Mike brand, which is exclusive to Telus and not offered by any Bell brands.

AMPS (discontinued)

Due to the age and security problems of this technology, Telus Mobility discontinued its AMPS analog mobile network in 2008. Telus offered landlines to customers affected by this network's shutdown in rural areas, as digital signals are less reliable than analog ones in such areas.

CDMA

Since the late 1990s, Telus Mobility operated a proprietary CDMA network with 3G Evolution-Data Optimized (Ev-DO) enhancements, but ceased expanding it towards the late 2000s. This is due to its limited worldwide popularity and roaming possibilities, and Telus' increased focus on HSPA+ and LTE technologies. Upon launching its LTE network, Telus discontinued sales of brand new CDMA devices, although its brand Koodo Mobile continued such sales. The CDMA network remains available for customers with legacy devices.

In February 2013, the company and its Koodo brand offered credits towards an HSPA+ device to any customer recycling their CDMA device in-store. Only most of Northern Ontario, rural Manitoba and a few other rural regions are exclusively served by the CDMA network. The only CDMA devices currently sold are the brand new Samsung Intensity and the refurbished BlackBerry Curve 8530, both at Koodo Mobile.

iDEN

Main article: Mike (cellular network)

When Telus Communications acquired Clearnet Communications in 1999, this included an Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) branded as Mike by Clearnet. Telus Mobility continues to maintain the network to this day, with the same logo and branding. The only difference is that any references to Clearnet have been changed to Telus.

Telus plans to launch a push to talk service over LTE, which will eventually replace Telus' iDEN Network, though no timeline has been announced for these changes.

HSPA+

On November 5, 2009, Telus launched HSPA+ services the day after Bell launched its such network. This newer technology eliminates many of the limitations found with CDMA technology. The launch of this additional network allowed Telus to become the third Canadian carrier to offer iPhone products. The HSPA+ network meant that Telus saved money by avoiding the purchase of expensive CDMA-based devices while obtaining the more popular HSPA devices at a lower cost.

The combined single-channel HSPA+ network is available to 97% of the Canadian population, but there are cases where CDMA service is available where HSPA+ service is not. It provides download speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s, with typical speeds ranging between 4 and 6 Mbit/s. About 70% of the Canadian population are located in Telus' dual-channel coverage areas, which doubles the maximum throughput to 42 Mbit/s with typical speeds of 7 to 14 Mbit/s.

This network operates on the frequencies of 850/1900 MHz. Although Rogers Wireless and its brand Fido operate HSPA+ networks separate from Telus and Bell, they transmit using the same frequencies. While Telus and Bell use the HSPA+ standard as established by the GSM group, neither company operates a basic 2G GSM network.

LTE

LTE service for Telus launched on February 10, 2012 through a partnership with Bell. Telus charges the same price for its HSPA+ and LTE services.

Products

Telus' product lineup mainly consists of smartphones but also includes a few feature phones. Smartphones are currently sold with one of four operating systems preloaded: Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS or Windows Phone.

Telus also sells several mobile broadband modems for use with its mobile broadband service. All modems currently sold use either HSPA+ or LTE and can connect to a personal computer via an Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, while some also provide Internet access to multiple devices via Wi-Fi and thus do not require a wired connection.

Services

Various services are offered by Telus Mobility.

Voice

Telus Mobility sells a variety of voice plans. These include a fixed amount of minutes plus unlimited calling on weeknights, weekends and with up to four other Telus lines on the same account. Caller ID and a basic voicemail for up to three messages are also included as calling features, although airtime is charged for accessing the latter. All voice plans except for the least expensive one also allow the choice of one additional feature: double minutes, five favourite numbers or unlimited Canada-wide SMS/MMS messaging. For the five favourite numbers, unlimited calling is available in either local or Canada-wide options while messaging to these numbers is Canada-wide.

Partners Skype and Telehop offer long distance services for Telus Mobility customers. The first service uses Voice over IP (VoIP) and requires a mobile broadband connection, while the latter uses traditional telephony through the dialing code #100. The Telehop service, which deducts minutes when used during weekdays, cannot be use for calls terminating in Canada or the United States.

Mobile Internet

Telus offers several Internet-only and smartphone plans and add-ons for customers wishing to access mobile broadband. Only one plan can be added per device, and certain plans are only available for certain devices.

Various fixed monthly data allowances are offered by Telus, ranging from 10 MB to 10 GB. A fixed 6 GB data allowance for smartphones is occasionally released at the reduced cost of $30/month. This cannot be purchased alone and must be added to a voice plan.

Flexible data plans are also available. This is used for Telus Mobility's Internet-only plans and some smartphone add-ons, which begin with a certain usage limit at a lower tier. If this is exceeded, the customer moves to the next higher tier with a slightly larger allowance. Voice service can also be added with an additional fee, or can be used on a pay-per-use basis.

	Flexible monthly mobile Internet plans
Usage included	Up to 10 MB	Up to 100 MB	Up to 500 MB	Up to 2 GB	Up to 5 GB	Up to 6 GB	Up to 10 GB
Availability	Tablets	Modems and tablets		Modems	Tablets	Modems
Text messaging	25¢ per message sent or received
Additional usage	Move to next tier for an additional fee				2¢/MB	Next tier	2¢/MB

More recently, Telus allows customers to share mobile Internet allowances of 1, 3 or 5 GB from specially marked smartphone plans with a modem or tablet. To do this, a flat fee is paid for each device added to the plan. The fee does not increase the allowance and merely allows the associated device to access the Internet. Some advantages to this approach include saving battery life on the original smartphone due to tethering being optional, as well as allowing each device to have a dedicated line with faster speeds for mobile Internet access. Equivalent monthly plans that originated in the United States, however, have been criticized for being customer-unfriendly.

Some grandfathered customers have an unlimited mobile Internet plan or add-on. These are usually limited to older and slower CDMA devices and normally cannot be used for tethering unless the device is a mobile broadband modem.

Mobile payment

See also: Mobile payment

Telus Mobility postpaid customers with a compatible smartphone can subscribe to Rdio or Skype and be billed for the service on their monthly bill. Use of either service on the Telus Mobility network requires a subscription to one of the provider's data plans or add-ons.

Controversy

Project Cleanfeed Canada

In November 2006, supposedly to prevent access to child pornography sites, Telus and many other Internet service providers agreed to partner with Cybertip.ca with the latter organization's Project Cleanfeed Canada. This project is an initiative which backers claim is designed to block access to child pornography on the Internet via an encrypted blacklist of known sites that host images of prepubescent children. Telus Mobility customers using mobile Internet services cannot access the sites blocked by the project.

The initiative has been denounced, as it is fundamentally a censorship system applied to public communications. Critics point out, that, among other problems common to censorship systems, it could easily later be re-purposed, perhaps quietly or too quickly to stop, for whatever desired object, that may have nothing whatsoever to do with the reasons backers claimed to have built/to be building it for. See Project Cleanfeed: Censorship in Canada.

Sale of pornography

In 2007, Telus Mobility began selling in-house pay-per-download pornographic entertainment, including explicit pictures and videos, via its phones. Industry analysts described the action, the first by a North American wireless company, as a landmark move. However, the company later discontinued sales of such content in response to objections from religious groups.

Incoming text message fee

In July 2008, Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility simultaneously introduced charges of 15¢ for every incoming text message received by all customers not subscribed to a text messaging plan. Critics were quick to point out that there is no way of blocking incoming message fees and suggested Telus and Bell were price fixing as both had announced the fees simultaneously. Both companies have been sued by frustrated consumers and subscribers, as they demand change in text charges. Many customers were frustrated because this fee also applies to existing customers with ongoing contracts.

Philanthropy

From 2008 to 2011 inclusively, Telus Mobility sold pink BlackBerry phones. This included the BlackBerry Curve and the BlackBerry Pearl consumer models. In 2012, Telus introduced a new campaign entitled "$25 for Free the Children" to replace the breast cancer campaign. For every purchase of the Samsung Galaxy S III or the Samsung Galaxy Ace Q, Telus will donate $25 to Free the Children, up to a maximum of $650,000. Both phones include a We Day-themed gel skin to fit the respective phone purchased.

Retail presence

Prepaid Telus Mobility phones and vouchers are sold at Zellers.

Telus Mobility has its own corporate retail stores and also allows third parties to become exclusive dealers. Best Buy, Future Shop, Loblaw Companies and Walmart stores in Canada provide Telus products along with prepaid and postpaid services, although some Loblaw-branded stores do not sell prepaid phones or any phones at all. Additionally, Zellers stores sell prepaid feature phones and top-up vouchers. Loblaw stores have a special booth, called The Mobile Shop, where the phones are displayed.

See also

• Amp'd Mobile Canada, a defunct youth-targeted brand based on a Telus Mobility partnership in 2007
• Koodo Mobile, an active mobile virtual network operator for this demographic launched solely by Telus Mobility in 2008
• Clearnet Communications, a company that Telus Mobility acquired in 2000
• Mike, a division of Telus Mobility previously owned by Clearnet selling push-to-talk, military certified phones
• Clearnet, a mobile virtual network operator launched in 2011 by Telus Mobility
• List of Canadian mobile phone companies
• Telus Communications, the parent of Telus Mobility

External links

• Telus Mobility website