Shades of Comcast's Xfinity: Canada's second largest telecommunications company, Telus, said it's upgrading its Western Canada TV and Internet service and calling it Optik. The telco is taking direct aim at Shaw, which has been pushing its own telephone voice service in the area.
"The cable monopoly is over," said Telus chief commercial officer Joe Natale, claiming when viewers experience the soon-to-be Optik offering "they walk away thinking, ‘This is not my Mom and Dad's TV anymore."
It's also not Telus, which is the whole point. Optik, the carrier said, is designed to reflect the fiber optic the carrier has installed in the area that can deliver up to 25 Mbps for the Internet. And here's the neat part, while the Telus brand will still be prominent, Optik advertisements will include "Danny, the Telus technician who comes into your living room to show what Telus TV can do." Shades of Verizon and Comcast.
One further thought for Telus, Shaw and the rest of the telecom crowd in Canada, a poll conducted by Ipsos for Canada.com found that 68 percent of adults with access to the Internet--and that's an important point there--spend more time online than they spend watching TV. What the poll didn't show is that 100 percent of adults without access to the Internet spend more time on TV.
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