Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) was the

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

provider in most of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

from 1906 to 1991. AGT was formed by the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford in 1906Wilson, Kevin G.,
Deregulating Telecommunications: U.S. and Canadian Telecommunications, 1840-1997
', Rowman & Littlefield (2000) page 35 following the acquisitions by the government of several independent telephone companies. In 1908, AGT acquired the

Bell Telephone Company The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company – the New Englan ...

's Alberta operationsAlberta Online Encyclopedia
"Alberta Government Telephones"
''Alberta's Telephone Heritage''
, Telus corporate website, accessed February 11, 2008 for $675,000. It eventually served almost all telephone customers in Alberta outside of the

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

area, where telephone service was operated by the Edmonton municipal government. Alberta Government Telephones was directly managed by the province's Department of Public Works as a public utility until 1958, when it was transformed into the Alberta Government Telephones Commission, a

crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

. From 1945 until 1960, AGT operated the province's educational radio station, CKUA.CKUA History
, Canadian Communications Foundation In 1969, AGT built what was then Edmonton's tallest skyscraper as its new headquarters, joined by a second tower in 1971 - together known today as ATB Place. In 1990, the Alberta government, under

Don Getty Donald Ross Getty (August 30, 1933 – February 26, 2016) was a Canadian politician who served as the 11th premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992. A member of the Progressive Conservatives, he served as Energy Minister and Federal and Intergo ...

of the Progressive Conservative Party, began the process of

privatizing Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

AGT, and formed Telus Communications as a holding company to facilitate the transfer. In 1991, the province of Alberta sold its remaining ownership interest in AGT to Telus for $870 million. Telus acquired Edmonton Telephones Corporation (Ed Tel) from the city of Edmonton in 1995; Ed Tel had been created only five years earlier from a reorganization of a department of the city. In 1996, the AGT and Ed Tel brands were retired in favour of the Telus name. Telus merged with

BC Tel British Columbia Telephone Company and later BC Tel was the legal operating name for the telephone company operating throughout the province of British Columbia, Canada. For most of its history, BC Tel served as one of several regional monopolies ...

in 1999 to form the present-day Telus Corporation.

References

{{Authority control Former Crown corporations of Canada Crown corporations of Alberta Defunct telecommunications companies of Canada Companies based in Edmonton Telecommunications companies established in 1906 Telus Telecommunications companies disestablished in 1991 1991 disestablishments in Alberta Canadian companies disestablished in 1991 Canadian companies established in 1906