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To: Ed Perry who wrote (3746)	11/4/1998 8:34:00 AM
From: Glenn Perry	Respond to of 17679

I don't mean to beat a duck over your head, but remember The Duck Corporation announced they were involved in the TELUS video-on-demand service in Edmonton Canada? duck.com I did a little research and was surprised at the depth of info I found on this service and the company, Telus. Their multimedia service, called Velocity, began as a trial until the bugs were worked out, now they are moving to their marketing phase, where customers are asked to pay for the services they want (scheduled to commence fall 1998). The trial period ends in May 1999 when they will use customer feedback to gauge the future marketing potential of this service. An in-depth question and answer segment is found at: telus.com Some snippets from this page: $65 million development effort 3,400 households participating TELUS has developed sophisticated interactive technology, the first of its kind box to be deployed in North America. The interactive television box combines the ability to deliver digital signals for display on regular televisions, as well as providing access to interactive services such as an electronic television program guide and movies and events on-demand. As well, a port is built into the box which can be activated to provide Internet access when connected to a personal computer. Our boxes are fundamentally different from the digital versions being developed by commercial cable TV operators and others (like Bell Canada & Shaw). Conventional boxes are essentially digital to analogue decoders that receive digital signals from the network and convert them into analogue signals for display on the analogue televisions in customers' homes (TV's are analogue devices and cannot receive digital pictures without a decoder). In addition to converting digital signals to analogue, our interactive television boxes provide the functionality that allows participants to access a number of interactive services such as the electronic program guide (eliminating traditional paper copies) and movies and events, virtually on-demand. We are also developing Internet e-mail and some limited access to Internet sites. Our boxes are really more like a computer in their ability to execute multiple applications. Through the integration of an analogue/digital decoder, the intelligence of an interactive programming interface and the computational power of a networked computer, viewers can move seamlessly between their television and the World Wide Web with the click of a button on their remote controls. This is what makes our boxes so new, unique and the most sophisticated of their kind to be deployed in North America. Currently, in most analog cable systems, there simply aren't enough channels to meet the consumer demand for content and the number of programming services which are being licensed. This is because traditional cable television technology has channel capacity limits which means that only a certain number of channels can be carried on the network. The network architecture of our trial is unique to TELUS Multimedia. Unlike traditional cable television technology, ours is a dual overlay network, comprised of fibre-to-the-curb and then a combination of fibre and traditional coaxial cable (HFC) into the home. It is this unique broadband infrastructure that provides exceptional bandwidth and functionality, allowing us to load more channels and programming on the network. TELUS Multimedia is experimenting with a fibre-to-the-curb network because it provides the ability to deliver digital programming and interactive services over a high-speed network. It means that each customer gets their own, unshared connection with TELUS. This provides a more reliable level of service for each customer regardless of what others in the neighborhood may be watching on their television or surfing on their home computer. This technology is also a key building block in providing customers with the service choices they want. What's the difference between cable modems like SHAW/Videotron and Velocity? Cable companies typically use a shared cable modem infrastructure where multiple users in the same neighborhood share the same bandwidth. As a result, the speed of a customer's Internet surfing can be affected by others in the neighborhood. The TELUS Velocity infrastructure does not use cable modems. It uses a dedicated technology that does not share bandwidth in the neighborhood, resulting in a more constant connection speed under similar conditions. So what happens at the end of the trial in May of 1999? Whether TELUS moves into the broadcasting and interactive industry or not hinges on customers' reactions to the services. Before we take that step, we need to understand what products and services customers value, if they want this type of innovation and if they're willing to pay for it. In addition, we need to determine which types of technology would be required to deliver which services and predict what the cost of a full commercial roll-out might be. Telus is Canada's third largest telecommunications company, with 9,400 employees and assets of $4.0 billion, through their wholly-owned subsidiaries. More on their merger with BC TELECOM to follow...

To: Ed Perry who wrote (3746)	11/4/1998 8:48:00 AM
From: Glenn Perry	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

More on the merger... telus.com October 19,1998, Burnaby, BC and Edmonton, AB BC TELECOM Inc. (TSE: BCT) and TELUS Corp. (TSE: T) today announced plans to merge and create a new, growth-oriented telecommunications company. In a joint announcement, the two companies emphasized this proposed merger of equals is the first step toward becoming a leading, national telecommunications provider. As part of the transaction, GTE, which currently owns just over 50 per cent of BC TELECOM, will hold just over 26 per cent of the voting shares of the merged company. GTE has advised both BC TELECOM and TELUS that it supports the transaction and intends to vote in favor of the merger. BC TELECOM and TELUS have a combined workforce of more than 25,000 people. BC TELECOM has approximately 14,000 employees. TELUS has approximately 11,000 employees. The two companies also announced that an agreement has been signed to acquire fibre-optic links in eastern Canada from Ledcor Industries. Ledcor will provide a fibre ring through southern Ontario and Quebec as well as links from Vancouver to Seattle, from Montreal to Albany and from Toronto to Albany which will have the ability to connect to GTE's national backbone network. Gee... no, GTE. There's one solution to the bandwidth problem.