Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) was the

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables 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 ...

provider in most of

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

from 1906 to 1991. AGT was formed by the Liberal government of

Alexander Cameron Rutherford Alexander Cameron Rutherford (February 2, 1857 – June 11, 1941) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the first premier of Alberta from 1905 to 1910. Born in Ormond, Canada West, he studied and practiced law in Ottawa before h ...

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 was the initial corporate entity from which the Bell System originated to build a continental conglomerate and monopoly in telecommunication services in the United States and Canada. The company was organized in Bost ...

'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 Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

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 Crown corporation () is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government. Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...

. From 1945 until 1960, AGT operated the province's educational radio station,

CKUA CKUA Radio is a Canadian donor-funded community radio station based in Edmonton, Alberta. Originally located on the campus of the University of Alberta in Edmonton (hence the UA of the call letters), it was the first public broadcaster in Canada ...

.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 ATB Place, formerly Telus Plaza, is an office complex in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Originally built as the headquarters of Alberta Government Telephones (AGT), the two office towers in the complex–ATB Place Tower and Telus House Edmonton – ser ...

. In 1990, the Alberta government, under

Don Getty Donald Ross Getty (August 30, 1933 – February 26, 2016) was a Canadian athlete, businessman, and politician who served as the 11th premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992. Before entering politics, Getty had been a quarterback for the Edmon ...

of the Progressive Conservative Party, began the process of

privatizing Privatization (rendered 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 w ...

AGT, and formed

Telus Communications Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, v ...

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, later known as BC Tel, was the telephone company operating throughout the province of British Columbia, Canada. For most of its history, BC Tel was one of several regional monopolies in Canada. In 1985, the Ca ...

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