Posted in Commentary with tags Telus on January 18, 2024 by itnerd
Today, TELUS introduced a new Stream+ bundle, bringing together three of Canada’s most popular streaming services, Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video, in one package. Stream+ is available exclusively to TELUS customers nationwide, offering customers access to thousands of content titles at an unbeatable price, with affordable plans starting at $20 per month – a monthly cost savings of 17%. The new Stream+ bundle sets the stage for non-stop winter entertainment where customers can enjoy their favourite TV shows and movies from the comfort of home or on-the-go.
Stream+ offers two new enticing bundles:
Stream+ Basic: For content streamers looking for great value, the Stream+ Basic bundle provides Netflix Standard with Ads, Disney+ Standard with Ads, and Prime Video all for just $20 per month.
Stream+ Premium: For those seeking the ultimate streaming experience and unbeatable value, the Stream+ Premium bundle offers Netflix Premium, Disney+ Premium, and Prime Video for $38 per month.
Stream+ includes not only Prime Video, but a full membership to Amazon Prime (valued at $9.99 per month or $99 per year), giving customers access to unlimited fast, free delivery on millions of items, including One-Day Delivery to most cities and towns and Same Day Delivery in select cities, ad-free listening of millions of songs on Amazon Music Prime, free gaming benefits with Prime Gaming, thousands of books with Prime Reading, unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos, among others.
Whether viewers are looking for heartwarming family sitcoms, iconic classic movies or captivating docu-series, Stream+ has everything you need for the perfect streaming marathon. Popular content titles include Emmy-award winning, global hit drama series The Crown on Netflix; Marvel Studios’ Loki on Disney+; and the global success The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video.
Streaming enthusiasts can easily add the new Stream+ bundle with eligible TELUS services directly on their My TELUS website or app, and watch from multiple devices simultaneously – including their TV, smartphone, tablet and laptop. This means customers can manage their subscriptions in one convenient place and binge-watch their favourites at home or on-the-go anywhere, any time. Customers who already have a subscription to one or more of the three streaming services can now link their existing accounts to the Stream+ bundle and enjoy these incredible savings – with no change to their preferences, viewing history or profiles.
Today, TELUS has launched a new rate plan, $35/month with 10GB of data providing more data at a discounted cost. This means youth aging out of care, low-income seniors and government-assisted refugees will have the option of choosing a $25/month plan with 3GB data, or $35/month plan with 10GB data.
Already supporting more than 21,000 low-income seniors, youth aging out of care and government-assisted refugees across Canada, the Mobility for Good program enables these individuals to stay in touch with friends and vital support networks, search for somewhere to live, find education and job opportunities, and build credit.
This new rate plan is another way TELUS is leading with purpose and helping ensure everyone has access to world-leading technology through TELUS’ Connecting for Good programs.
To learn more about Mobility for Good eligibility requirements and to apply directly online, visit telus.com/mobilityforgood.
Posted in Commentary with tags Telus on January 16, 2024 by itnerd
Available to TELUS customers with a compatible iPhone on iOS 17.2 or later can take advantage of a new capability from TELUS which allows users to conveniently set up and activate a new line via eSIM directly on their iPhone. To take advantage of the new eSIM Carrier Activation feature, TELUS customers can head to the TELUS website or visit any TELUS retail location and:
Purchase a brand new iPhone and select an eSIM at the time of checkout. An eSIM will be sent digitally to the new iPhone during the initial set up – meaning no more physical vouchers are required to get started.
Bring in their own compatible iPhone and activate a new line at TELUS. Customers can instantly activate on eSIM within minutes by simply entering the EID of their device.
Koodo customers purchasing or activating a compatible iPhone can also take advantage of the new eSIM Carrier activation by visiting any retail location.
Posted in Commentary with tags Telus on January 11, 2024 by itnerd
TELUS Health, a global leader in health technology, and Clinia, a leading provider of health-grade search technologies have announced an exclusive strategic partnership to revolutionize health navigation and deliver personalized care throughout individuals’ health journeys. By harnessing Clinia’s AI-powered technology stack, TELUS Health aims to streamline provider registry networks management, facilitate seamless interconnectivity and drive improved cost sustainability for payors and providers, eliminating the problems associated with traditional provider registry networks.
With the combined TELUS Health and Clinia infrastructure, time and effort spent on administrative tasks and manual data entry is optimized through turnkey solutions for their provider registry, allowing more effective allocation of resources. This solution eliminates the problems associated with traditional provider registry networks, which are expensive to maintain yet don’t give connected and complete information. Now, payors can leverage a complete single solution to power their own trusted experiences, including referrals and resource management for care teams, and give members direct access to vetted care providers that are personalized to the benefits plan of an employer or individual.
TELUS Ventures, the strategic investment arm of TELUS Corporation and one of Canada’s most active and longest-standing corporate venture capital (CVC) funds, is leading a $10M Series A financing round for Clinia with participation from existing investors including AQC Capital, Anges Québec, Groupe Benoit, Kastello and Formentera Capital. This capital demonstrates the power of Canadian innovation and will accelerate growth connecting the company into TELUS’ ecosystem to foster further innovation benefiting customers globally.
Not too long ago, my wife and I switched from TELUS to Freedom Mobile because to be frank, we were paying too much money with TELUS and we could save significant amounts of money with Freedom Mobile. This also highlighted the fact that Canadian telcos aren’t willing to give existing customers good deals to retain them as customers. Instead they try to offer you a “winback” deal after you’ve already switched. So when I saw this posted on CBC News, it got my attention because it shows the current state of play when it comes to the telco industry in Canada:
Even as the minister responsible admitted there aren’t enough competitive options for mobile service in Canada, another federal official said consumers can and should search for other service providers when faced with price increases.
That message — from Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada — came just hours after the Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canadians “still pay too much and see too little competition” for cellular services.
“Customers could consider switching service providers,” an ISED Canada representative wrote Thursday, when asked for a response to price increases at Rogers Communications and reported hikes at Bell.
Now in case you’re not aware, Rogers is going to hike prices wireless and Ignite bundles. Shaw is going to do the same thing, and Bell is rumoured to be about to do the same. The thing is that I am old enough to remember when all three telcos used to have retention departments where if you went to them, you could cut yourself a better deal if you signed on for say two years. That wasn’t ideal, but at least you had a means to save a few bucks.
But those days are over.
Like I mentioned earlier, carriers now seem to only want to focus on giving you the best deals when you’re a new customer and when you have already left. Trying to keep you as a customer is not a priority for them. That forces consumers to play this game of musical telcos if they are able to. And I say “if they are able to” because it’s easy enough to switch telcos for say your cell phone as it’s simple to port a number from one telco to another. But dumping Rogers Internet for Bell Internet for example is a bit more of an exercise as you’ve got to get a tech in to install the service, and you might have your email tied to your old carrier, which by the way you shouldn’t ever do. That makes the process a non-trivial exercise. And the cynic in me says that telcos are to some degree or another counting on that to keep you as a customer and paying more as a result.
The fact that telcos these days are effectively saying “go ahead and leave, we don’t care” and then offering you a “winback” offer days after you’ve left says to me that telcos don’t respect you as a customer. I say that because they are more interested in having you show up as a new customer in the quarterly stats if they go the “winback” offer route as you’ve quit and then you’ve come back. And it also doesn’t affect their “churn” rate which is the amount of people who leave a carrier in a given quarter. Because you’ve left and come back which means it evens out at the end of the day. None of that sounds like a business who respects their customers. And the “big 3” telcos are all guilty of doing this.
While I don’t think that this will happen anytime soon, one of the “big 3” needs to change their view of the universe and start to see their customers as fellow Canadians. As in their friends or neighbours who have challenges with the cost of living these days and adjust their business practices to reflect that. For example working with their customers to make their telco bills more affordable if they are approached by their customers to do just that. Because if one of the “big 3” telcos did that, the other two will be forced to follow suit because they all follow each other in lockstep. But like I said earlier, I don’t think that would happen anytime soon because the only thing that Canadian telcos appear to care about is how much money they can extract from you until you tap out and switch telcos. Assuming you’re able to. And then they may care about bringing you back into the fold. It’s a sad state of play and says a lot about how Bell, Rogers, and TELUS view you.
Well this seems a bit suspect. Google is collecting the eyelid shape and skin tone of children via parent submitted videos. And apparently, Canadian telco TELUS TELUS International is involved in this. Here’s the details:
Google is collecting the eyelid shape and skin tone of children via parent submitted videos, according to a project description online reviewed by 404 Media. Canadian tech conglomerate TELUS, which says it is working on Google’s behalf, is offering parents $50 to film their children wearing various props such as hats or sunglasses as part of the project, the description adds.
The project shows the methods some companies are using to build machine learning, artificial intelligence, or facial recognition datasets and products. Rather than scraping already existing images or analyzing previously collected material, TELUS, and by extension Google, is asking the public to contribute directly and get paid in return. Google told 404 Media the collection was part of the company’s efforts to verify users’ age.
“Eyelid shape. Skin tone. Video recording (without voice),” a section of the project terms and conditions listing the data collected reads. Another section says that TELUS’ customer—that is, Google—will collect “facial geometry.”
Let’s see what TELUS TELUS International and Google have to say about this:
TELUS writes that the purpose is to “capture a broad cross-section of participants targeting various combinations of demographics, with the goal of ensuring that our customer’s services, and derived products, are equally representative of a diverse set of end-users.” The description adds that the use case is to “help improve the authentication methods, thus offering more secure tools for the end users.”
Google told 404 Media in an email that TELUS was enlisted to find people to participate in the study, but TELUS itself did not receive any of the videos submitted. Rather, TELUS worked to identify eligible participants for Google.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement that “As part of our commitment to delivering age-appropriate experiences and to comply with laws and regulations around the world, we’re exploring ways to help our users verify their age. Last year, Telus helped us find volunteers for a project exploring whether this could be done via selfies. From there, Google collected videos and images of faces, clearly explaining how the content will be used and, as with all research involving minors, we required parental consent for participants under the age of 18. We’ve also put strict privacy protections in place, including limiting the amount of time the data will be retained and providing all participants the option to delete their data at any time.”
Google said improving user experience in this area also helps adults verify their age, and can assist with services that might be age-gated to children and teenagers. The company also said using outside vendors can help collect a diverse dataset and ultimately build more inclusive products.
Like I said, this seems a bit suspect. The fact that Google and TELUS TELUS International have teamed up to do this really rubs me the wrong way. Google’s involvement in this doesn’t surprise me in the least. But the fact that TELUS TELUS International is involved in this does as I always believed that TELUS TELUS International would never be involved in something like this. Add to that the fact that this whole project was aimed at kids who could not consent for themselves and it’s not a good look for either company.
UPDATE: In this story I wrote TELUS when it should have been TELUS International. TELUS is TELUS International’s parent company and they operate separately. That’s why the original mentions of TELUS have a strike through font like this. The story from 404 Media has not been corrected as that is the responsibility of 404 Media.
Here’s some inside info on how things work on this blog. My wife works with me to run this blog as I often am too busy working with my clients to get content online. So she will sometimes post stories for me. Especially if it’s breaking news. She also monitors the Twitter and Mastodon accounts and sometimes she will post stuff on those platforms as well. Recently, she had a conversation with some of her friends about how much their telco costs were, and the fact that getting a better deal from whomever your telco happens to be at that moment is next to impossible. That prompted her to post this on Twitter:
Serious question.
Why is it that Canadian telcos like @Bell , @Rogers, and @Telus value your business and give you great deals AFTER you leave them rather than while you're still with them?
So my wife took this conversation to her DM’s, and after some back and forth she got what she thought what was a commitment to get a call back from the TELUS loyalty group within three business days. The thing was that three business days passed and nothing happened. Thus she posted this:
Several days ago, @Telus said that someone would be phoning me to "go over options" to see if we can lower our bill. But that hasn't happened. That's very disappointing and I'm having my partner look at another carrier to save money. https://t.co/HNzA2cJPs6
TELUS to their credit, did try to call her twice after that was posted. Once she was in a meeting so she wasn’t able to take the call. The second time she picked up the phone but there was nobody on the other end. What made matters worse is that when she checked her voice mail, she found out that their loyalty department is outbound only as that information was in the voice mails that they left. Meaning that you can’t call them back. While I get why they do that, which is to avoid being flooded by people who want to lower their cell phone bills, it’s a #Fail as it creates this sort of situation where a customer who does want to work with a telco being unable to get in touch with said telco. Thus the customer left frustrated and starts seeking other options as a result. And that’s when she highlighted to me what our cell phone bill was with TELUS:
Each of our iPhones cost us $70 a month and that gave us 6GB of data.
Each iPhone has Visual Voicemail which costs $5 a month.
Each of our Apple Watches were $10 a month with a bonus of 1GB of data.
So the net result was $85 a month for each our phones with TELUS. That isn’t cheap, and we don’t get a lot for our money seeing as we were only getting 6 – 7 GB of data. That started a discussion between us as to where we could save money. Because let’s be honest. Everything is more expensive these days. Which means that people are going to look to save money wherever they can. And if Canadian telcos were smart, they would work to help their customers to save money rather than have them bolt to another carrier and then have to try to get them back later. Now I get why telcos do this. Their shareholders only care about churn (the number of people who leave a telco which should be less than 1% per quarter), average revenue per user, and the number of customers a telco acquires in a given quarter. The retention of customers isn’t top of mind with telcos unless their churn rate skyrockets. But I would argue this. The best customer for a telco to have is the one they currently have because they already have them. And if it costs them a couple of bucks via a better deal to keep them, then that is a better option in my mind versus having them leave and either offer a “winback” deal to get that customer back, or acquiring a new customer from another telco via a promotional offer of some sort to entice them to switch.
Now all of this sounds like we’re trashing TELUS. The fact is that we’ve had no problems with them to speak of in terms of service. As in being able use our iPhones and Apple Watches when we need to and where we need to. And the very few times we’ve called them, the customer service has been great. But the fact is that my wife and I simply need to pay less for our cell phone service. And clearly there are better deals out there to be had.
Enter Freedom Mobile.
Now we were willing to give Freedom Mobile a shot because there was zero chance we were going back to Rogers due to their massive outage that basically took down the country in 2022. And we were never going to bundle all of our services with Bell because we want diversity with our telco services. In other words, some of our services with one telco, and other services with another telco. That way if a Rogers type situation happens again, something should still work. Thus Freedom Mobile got a serious look from us. And they had a deal during boxing week that got our attention. Which was this:
30GB of data in Canada and US for $34 a month for 2 years.
$10 for our Apple Watches
$4 for visual voice mail
That’s $48 a month for each of our phones and Apple Watches. A net savings of $41 a month for each of us. And we get more for the money we do spend with Freedom Mobile in terms of far more data. After doing some research in terms of coverage and service quality on Reddit, we felt comfortable enough to pull the trigger on this. Yes we’d likely have to revisit this in two years, but that’s not a today problem. Saving money is today’s problem.
PRO TIP: If you’re going to pull the trigger on Freedom Mobile, your best bet is to go to a corporate location to get the best service based on the research that I did on Reddit. Now I will say that this isn’t 100% guaranteed as I will illustrate in a moment. But it’s truly your best bet as the consensus on Reddit is that dealership stores which may display Freedom Mobile signage aren’t owned by Freedom Mobile. Thus they apparently have been known to play fast and loose with the truth to make a sale.
Type in your location. Then on the left side, where the location results are, choose “warranty and repair”. That will isolate all the corporate stores as evidenced by this screenshot:
Now originally my wife and I went to the Sherway Gardens location as we had to do some other things in that mall. Thus it was one stop shopping. But when we started talking to the staff there, they said that Apple Watch plans are not something that Freedom Mobile offers and the only company that does is “TELUS and maybe Bell”. Even when I showed them Freedom Mobile’s website on my phone which clearly lists Apple Watch plans as an option, they denied it was even a thing. Thus we left and went to the Cloverdale Mall location. Which is where I posted this to Twitter:
Hey @FreedomMobile some free advice. The staff at yes Sherway Gardens location claims that you don’t offer Apple Watch plans. I know that’s not true and if we weren’t determined to leave @telus we would have pulled the plug. Instead we went to another location and it worked out.
Anyway, when we worked with the staff at the Freedom Mobile kiosk at Cloverdale Mall, they really worked with us to make sure that we understood everything before we did anything. And within 20 minutes, we had an account set up as well as two SIM cards. We went home and less than one hour after we got home our numbers were ported over from TELUS as we were notified of that via a text message that we got shortly after we inserted our Freedom Mobile SIM cards into our respective phones. At that point we were able to create an online account where we were able to add visual voice mail. Then we were able to use the Watch app on our iPhones to add a Freedom Mobile plan to our Apple Watches. Finally, we enabled WiFi calling on our phones to give more robust options in terms of cell coverage when we are on WiFi in an area with limited cell coverage.
Total time invested including driving from home to Sherway Gardens, then to Cloverdale Mall, then to home to finish setting up everything: Just under 2 hours
Other than the staff at the Freedom Mobile kiosk at Sherway Gardens who clearly didn’t have a clue about Freedom Mobile’s offerings, the process was pain free. One bonus is that Freedom Mobile waived our connection fees. That’s an extra $90 that we’re saving.
Now I really have to do some testing on Freedom Mobile’s coverage. But the thing that I noticed right off the top was that we were getting a strong 5G signal inside our condo. This was never the case with TELUS. I’ll be interested to see how that translates into coverage and speed in the areas that I travel. Thus I’ll spend the next few days doing some testing this with my iPhone 14 Pro and let you know what I find out. I’ll also report back on any issues that we have as I’m typing this less than 24 hours after we made the switch. While we’ve had no issues so far, it is possible that we might come across something negative (or positive for that matter) that is worth reporting on. Stay tuned for that as well. And if you have any questions on our experience, drop us a comment and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Posted in Commentary with tags Telus on December 20, 2023 by itnerd
To help Canadians avoid cyber risks and scams this season, Cybersecurity Expert and Director of TELUS Online Security, Leigh Tynan, has rounded up a few top scams of the holidays, and her tips & tricks to avoiding them below.
Top Holiday Scams to Avoid:
Shopping scams – watch out for unfamiliar websites offering low-cost items – if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Scammers may never ship the item you purchased and keep your payment information to rack up unauthorized purchases.
Lottery, sweepstakes, and charities – It’s important to be suspicious if you are ever asked to pay taxes or fees to the CRA on lottery or sweepstakes winnings – get more information about the charity, including whether or not they are registered with the CRA.
Emergency scams: If a supposed loved one is reaching out for financial help around the holidays, make sure you confirm their identity by hanging up the phone and calling them back directly.
How to Protect Yourself this Season:
Be mindful of “unboxing” day – Electronic devices are very popular gifts during the holiday season. It may be tempting to start using your new device right away after unboxing, but make sure you take the time to set up the appropriate security measures to protect any device against cyber threats.
Monitor your financial accounts regularly to ensure all activity is yours, especially with increased holiday transactions.
To help make cyber safety easy, TELUS Online Security offers a simple solution to help prevent cyber threats, help detect and alert you when you’re at greater risk, and help you recover if the worst happens.
Posted in Commentary with tags Telus on December 1, 2023 by itnerd
TELUS has announced the acquisition of new 3800 MHz spectrum licences nationwide at a cost of $620 million during the recent ISED 3800 MHz auction. TELUS will now hold licences to an average of 72 MHz of 3800 MHz spectrum nationally, acquired at an average price of $0.24 per MHz-pop. Combined with the 3500 MHz spectrum obtained in 2021, TELUS has secured approximately 100 MHz of prime 5G mid-band spectrum nationally, with contiguity in 96% of the country including all major markets, at an average price of $0.82 per MHz-pop.
TELUS is well positioned to fully maximise the efficient use of 5G and the effective development and deployment of 5G products and services conceived of since the launch of this wireless technology. With mid-band spectrum becoming the critical global band for 5G innovation due to the ideal combination of speed, capacity, low latency, and coverage, this contiguous spectrum provides wider channels and enables a superior network experience for customers.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) shifted from the previous auction framework utilising set-aside spectrum in favour of a spectrum cap. Spectrum caps are the auction mechanism used almost exclusively by the rest of the world. This shift in the framework now more closely aligns spectrum costs with the competitive prices in the market. Declining spectrum prices are essential in supporting the 18.6% year over year decline in wireless prices, significant during this heightened inflationary period. In addition, this auction design enabled the provision of enough spectrum to the four national operators at a cost comparable to other jurisdictions. Canada’s average price per MHz-pop was in line with the average rate paid in Australia, of $0.26 per MHz-pop (CAD equivalent).
Posted in Commentary with tags Telus on November 24, 2023 by itnerd
Black Friday is here and TELUS is offering customers great deals on a variety of cell phone plans, internet, TV, and home security plans. Below is a roundup of our top sales:
Get unlimited data, talk and text, plus 120GB at 5G+ speeds for $75/month after bill credits.
Bring your own device and get unlimited data, talk and text, plus 30GB at 5G+ speeds for $55/month after bill credits (available in Quebec only).
$0 upfront for the most popular smartphones, including the iPhone 14 and Samsung S23 FE, with TELUS Easy Payment and Bring-It-Back program.
For a limited time only until November 27, all online orders for the Samsung S23 FE will come with a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds FE True Wireless Earbuds as a gift with purchase.
Enjoy 70GB at 5G speeds and unlimited Canada-wide call and text for $55/month, when you bring your own phone or buy a phone on the Tab (excluding Quebec).
Get three months of Amazon Prime on us with select Pick Your Perk plans
Save $10/month when you bundle Koodo Internet together with a Koodo mobility plan
Add Stream+ to any new and existing TELUS or Koodo mobility plan for just $10/month for the first three months, and enjoy an exclusive bundle of Netflix Premium, AppleTV+ and discovery+
Save up to 50% on a wide selection of certified pre-owned devices from top brands, in-store or online.
Purchase and finance a certified pre-owned phone in-store for as low as $0/month on select devices. Customers will also get a $100 store credit that can be used towards the device purchase or an accessory, an exclusive $50 sustainability credit, and 20% off all phone cases at participating locations.
For a limited time until November 27, purchase and activate a certified pre-owned phone in-store and get the Protection Bundle for $0 ($99 value), which includes a case, screen protector and 2-years unlimited screen repairs.
Stream+ from TELUS Is Bringing Canadians A Streaming Bundle With Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video For One Price
Posted in Commentary with tags Telus on January 18, 2024 by itnerdToday, TELUS introduced a new Stream+ bundle, bringing together three of Canada’s most popular streaming services, Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video, in one package. Stream+ is available exclusively to TELUS customers nationwide, offering customers access to thousands of content titles at an unbeatable price, with affordable plans starting at $20 per month – a monthly cost savings of 17%. The new Stream+ bundle sets the stage for non-stop winter entertainment where customers can enjoy their favourite TV shows and movies from the comfort of home or on-the-go.
Stream+ offers two new enticing bundles:
Stream+ includes not only Prime Video, but a full membership to Amazon Prime (valued at $9.99 per month or $99 per year), giving customers access to unlimited fast, free delivery on millions of items, including One-Day Delivery to most cities and towns and Same Day Delivery in select cities, ad-free listening of millions of songs on Amazon Music Prime, free gaming benefits with Prime Gaming, thousands of books with Prime Reading, unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos, among others.
Whether viewers are looking for heartwarming family sitcoms, iconic classic movies or captivating docu-series, Stream+ has everything you need for the perfect streaming marathon. Popular content titles include Emmy-award winning, global hit drama series The Crown on Netflix; Marvel Studios’ Loki on Disney+; and the global success The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video.
Streaming enthusiasts can easily add the new Stream+ bundle with eligible TELUS services directly on their My TELUS website or app, and watch from multiple devices simultaneously – including their TV, smartphone, tablet and laptop. This means customers can manage their subscriptions in one convenient place and binge-watch their favourites at home or on-the-go anywhere, any time. Customers who already have a subscription to one or more of the three streaming services can now link their existing accounts to the Stream+ bundle and enjoy these incredible savings – with no change to their preferences, viewing history or profiles.
For more information and to sign-up for Stream+, visit telus.com/streamplus
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