Toronto, ON – TELUS will invest $1.1 billion in new infrastructure and wireless technology across Ontario through 2016, the company announced today. TELUS will invest $500 million across the province in 2014, the final year of a three-year plan unveiled in 2012, and today committed to spending another $600 million throughout 2015 and 2016 to provide critical fibre optic communications links to business clients, advanced healthcare solutions to consumers, expanded cloud computing data centre solutions, and to bring the world’s fastest wireless technology to more Ontario communities.

“TELUS is dedicated to bringing Ontarians the most advanced wireless communications infrastructure available in the world today, greater access to our advanced TELUS Health solutions, and the high-capacity connections businesses rely on to compete locally and globally,” said Darren Entwistle, TELUS Executive Chairman. “Our $1.1 billion investment through 2016 will  augment our infrastructure to ensure continued innovation and economic success in communities throughout the entire province.”

“By the end of 2016 TELUS’ investment in operations and infrastructure in Ontario since 2000 will exceed $36 billion,” Mr. Entwistle added. “Additionally, as the subject of tax morality has become a hot topic in the governance of corporations around the world, it’s important to note TELUS has also remitted income, payroll, property, sales and other taxes totalling more than $1.65 billion to provincial and municipal governments in Ontario since 2000. As a good corporate citizen we are helping support important social services for Ontarians across the province.”

“TELUS’ commitment to Ontario extends well beyond providing customers with world-class technology, investing in new infrastructure and paying taxes,” said Mr. Entwistle. “Supporting local charities and not-for-profit organizations through funding from TELUS, our employees and Community Boards and volunteering in our communities, is as vital as investing in technology and infrastructure. Since 2000 TELUS and our more than 8,000 employees and retirees here in Ontario have donated more than $59 million and volunteered 370,000 hours to community and charitable organizations.”

Through 2016, TELUS’ infrastructure investment will advance services for the benefit of Ontarians by:

• Extending the reach of the world’s fastest wireless technology, called 4G LTE, to even more Ontario communities. TELUS 4G LTE is already available to more than 85 per cent of Ontarians. TELUS will rapidly deploy the 700 MHz spectrum won in the recent auction to enhance speeds and coverage even further across the province;
• Expanding the reach of TELUS’ healthcare solutions, which currently provide electronic medical records to more than 12,500 Canadian physicians across the country and support more than 45 million patient interactions each year;
• Extending its fibre optic networks to continue providing Ontario businesses large and small as well as the provincial and federal governments with the technologically advanced communications services they need; and
• Enhancing TELUS’ cloud computing data centre infrastructure in the province.

Mr. Entwistle concluded, “TELUS continues to bridge the digital divide by offering Ontarians greater access to telehealth, virtual classrooms and small business solutions in even the most remote corners of the province.”

The capital investment disclosed in this release is consistent with TELUS' overall capital expenditure guidance for 2014.