TELUS unleashes Optik - a new breed of home entertainment and communications

VANCOUVER, June 8 /CNW/ - TELUS is revolutionizing home entertainment and communications with a new suite of advanced TV and High Speed Internet services. Starting today, this new and exciting capability will be known as Optik.

"Seeing is believing. Optik is a TV and high speed internet service like nothing you've seen before. Our TELUS team has tapped the latest fibre optic and IP technologies to bring our customers a compelling set of home entertainment and communications services that can be tailored to their lifestyles," said Joe Natale, TELUS' Chief Commercial officer.

Optik brings together TELUS' most advanced home services - Optik TV, powered by the award-winning Microsoft Mediaroom, and Optik High Speed, offering Internet access speeds of up to 25 megabits per second that can be accessed anywhere in your home with home Wi-Fi.

"Optik represents years of work and billions of dollars invested by TELUS to build one of Canada's fastest and most extensive fibre optic networks, redefining what home entertainment and communications means to our customers and our company," Mr. Natale said. "Optik is the realization of the dream of flexible, two-way entertainment on your TV screen over blazing fast Internet connections, and an entertainment experience that provides more connectivity, control and choice to our customers whether surfing the Web in their home office or catching a movie in HD with their family."

Mr. Natale added that TELUS' investment in the expansion of its fibre optic network has given the company the capacity needed to introduce Western Canadians to the most compelling home entertainment services on the market.

"With our Microsoft Mediaroom-based Optik TV, only TELUS customers can record up to three programs simultaneously on a single Personal Video Recorder and then play them back on any TV in the home with a digital box, even switching TVs mid-program when life calls for a little flexibility," Mr. Natale said. "The cable monopoly on TV is over and Optik now provides consumers with choice and innovation."

Optik TV offers:

    
        -  PVR Anywhere, networking all TVs in the home with one multi-tuner
           PVR so customers can pause a recorded show or movie in one room
           and pick it up in another from where they left off

        -  Video On Demand with DVD-style controls

        -  Picture-in-Picture browsing

        -  Fast channel changing

        -  Call Display on your TV.
    

In the near future TELUS will introduce Remote Recording, the ability to program your Optik TV PVR from a wireless smartphone or Web-enabled computer.

As for broadband, TELUS' new fibre network is bringing Internet speeds of up to 25 megabits per second to customers in B.C. and Alberta. In addition to raw speed, TELUS' new Optik High Speed Internet service includes in-home WiFi at no additional cost. With one easy-to-install box in their home, customers can use their computers and printers wherever it suits them without being tethered to a wire.

These advancements are made possible by $25 billion in infrastructure investment TELUS has made across Canada since 2000. TELUS is investing another $1.7 billion this year to continue expanding its network and bringing faster Internet and Optik TV to even more homes in Alberta and British Columbia.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.6 billion of annual revenue and 11.9 million customer connections including 6.6 million wireless subscribers, 3.9 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers and 200,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed $158 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 3.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Nine TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

For further information: Shawn Hall, TELUS Media Relations, [phone], [email protected]