Shaw launches VoIP phones, Telus TV will arrive this year
Jim Jamieson
Province
Shaw Communications’ Jim Shaw (left) and Peter Bissonnette in Vancouver yesterday. Photograph by : Jon Murray, The Province
The smorgasbord of telephone, television and the Internet on one platter is intriguing the technology world these days, and two of western Canada’s large communications companies announced moves yesterday to enhance their respective abilities to eat the other’s lunch.
Telus Corp., Canada’s second-biggest phone operator and the incumbent in B.C. and Alberta, said it is building a $15-million satellite and content-distribution centre in a remote location at the northern end of the Fraser Valley as a major building block in the launching of its much-anticipated digital-television product, expected to be available in the Vancouver area by midyear.
Meanwhile, Shaw Communications Inc., western Canada’s largest cable-TV operator, launched its digital residential-telephone service in Vancouver. Shaw said it expected the company’s phone business (already in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Victoria) to grow from its current 90,000 subscribers to 200,000 by year end.
Shaw’s phone service uses Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which packages voice calls as data and sends them over broadband connections — opening up a whole new range of features.
Fred Di Blasio, Telus vice-president of consumer product marketing, said his company would be combining VoIP telephony and digital TV to offer customers innovative products.
“We have over 100 years experience on the phone side,” he said. “When I look at the competitors’ offerings today on telephony, these are basic services.”
Di Blasio said Telus TV — currently being rolled out on a limited basis in Alberta — will incorporate such features as visual caller ID that appears on a customer’s TV screen when the phone rings. He said Telus TV will launch here with more than 200 video and audio channels and will have more than 300 by year end.
Telus’s basic TV service will start at $22 per month for 23 channels.
Shaw CEO Jim Shaw said he didn’t think there had to be winner or loser in the telephone market — although investment firm Merrill Lynch has estimated Telus will lose about 150,000 lines to the cable provider in 2006.
“There’s lots of market for everyone here,” Shaw said. “There is a lot of demand for flat-rate calling and for consumer competition in the local phone market. Hopefully, it makes the other provider improve and the consumer wins.”
Shaw’s service includes a local residential phone line, unlimited long-distance calling anywhere in North America and several features. The cost is $55 a month for current Shaw customers.
The company also introduced a new direct-dial long-distance plan.
Telus’s basic monthly phone service in the Lower Mainland is about $25, but long-distance service includes an administration fee of $4.95 a month. Other features are extra.
Shaw said his company will look at adding a phone product for the business market by the end of this year and may offer a wireless-phone option as part of a bundle in 2007.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
