TELUS extends low-cost high speed Internet program to more low-income Canadian families
OTTAWA, Nov. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TELUS is expanding the reach of its Internet for Good program by participating in the Federal Government's Connecting Families initiative, which got underway earlier this week. TELUS Internet for Good first launched in 2016 in collaboration with provincial governments and not-for-profit partners, and currently provides 33,000 low-income single-parent families in B.C. and Alberta access to TELUS Internet 25 and 300 GB of data for only $9.95 per month. The Connecting Families initiative, originally announced in June by the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, brings together other Canadian ISPs to enable hundreds of thousands more Canadian families to receive low-cost Internet at home.
TELUS has a legacy of helping disadvantaged Canadians. In October, TELUS announced it is giving an unprecedented $120 million - the largest donation ever made by a publicly traded company in Canadian history - to launch the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation, an independent charitable organization mandated to address the social and economic challenges facing Canada's disadvantaged youth.
"Across Canada, 40 per cent of low-income families lack affordable access to the Internet, which puts kids at risk of falling behind in school. TELUS' Internet for Good was introduced to help answer this pressing social challenge. Thousands of families immediately enrolled in TELUS' program, which validates its importance and reinforces that this is the right thing to do for Canadians," said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO of TELUS. "The Internet is a vital service that is often taken for granted as accessible for all, and through programs like TELUS' Internet for Good we are leading the way in connecting at-risk Canadians to the tools they need to be successful. The TELUS team is incredibly proud to stand alongside the Government of Canada, our industry colleagues, and not-for-profit partners to create Connecting Families."
In the last two decades, TELUS, its team members and retirees have contributed more than $1.1 billion through $650 million in financial support and 1.21 million days of volunteerism, helping to remove barriers and connect Canada's most vulnerable citizens to the resources they need. In addition to TELUS Internet for Good, TELUS created two other programs to complement its social-purpose initiatives:
- TELUS Mobility for Good offers a free cell phone and data plan to youth aging out of the foster care system in B.C., Ontario, and Quebec, ensuring this vulnerable population can stay connected to their support networks, social services, education and employment opportunities. TELUS will expand this program to Alberta and Manitoba in 2019.
- TELUS Health for Good is an innovative national program that provides healthcare to vulnerable and underserved Canadians where they need it most, deploying specially equipped mobile health clinics - ?clinics on wheels' - into communities where frontline care is urgently needed. These mobile clinics are equipped with TELUS Health technology including electronic medical records, and to date have supported more than 10,000 patient visits and reintegrated more than half of these patients back into the public healthcare system. Once fully operational, the TELUS Health mobile clinics will support more than 20,000 Canadians each year.
For more information about Connecting Families, please visit the Connecting Families website.
About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is one of Canada's largest telecommunications companies, with $14.1 billion of annual revenue and 13.3 million subscriber connections, including 9.2 million wireless subscribers, 1.8 million high-speed Internet subscribers, 1.3 million residential network access lines and 1.1 million TELUS TV customers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment, video and home and business security. TELUS is also Canada's largest healthcare IT provider, and TELUS International delivers business process solutions around the globe.
In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed over $650 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered more than 1.21 million days of service to local communities since 2000. Created in 2005 by President and CEO Darren Entwistle, TELUS' 13 Canadian community boards and five International boards have led the Company's support of grassroots charities and have contributed $72 million in support of 7,000 local charitable projects, enriching the lives of more than 2 million children and youth, annually. 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.
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Liz Sauvé
TELUS Social and Media Relations
[email protected]
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