Network boost for Telus

Article Excerpt

TELUS CORP. $38.61 (Toronto symbol T.A; Shares outstanding: 335.6 million; Market cap: $13.0 billion; SI Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.2%) will spend $1.7 billion on capital improvements in 2010. It will put $1.55 billion of these funds toward upgrading its high-speed Internet and wireless networks in its main markets. Telus will spend $650 million on network upgrades in Alberta, $650 million in British Columbia and $250 million in Quebec. The company’s 2009 cash flow was $2.6 billion, or $8.07 a share, so it can easily afford these outlays. These improvements should help spur demand for Telus’s new services, including Telus TV, which transmits television signals over high-speed Internet connections. Telus TV will help the company compete with bundled telephone and television services offered by cable companies; about 8% of Telus’s residential phone customers now subscribe to its TV service. Faster wireless networks will also help Telus sell more smartphones that can send and receive email, and access the Internet. Telus is still…