Telus 2015 Annual Report Download - page 17

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and coverage into offices and other densely populated buildings. We expect this
technology will help relieve congestion and offload traffic from the macro wireless
network to deliver seamless connectivity in public and enterprise indoor environments.
In June 2015, we announced the closure of the remaining 59 Black’s Photography retail
stores across Canada by August 2015. Technological innovations have changed the
way Canadians take and share photographs, with fewer of them using retail photo
outlets. As a result, we determined that Black’s was not core to our future operations.
We sold the Black’s trademark and online and mobile businesses to Les Pros de la
Photo (Les Pros), a Quebec-based photo imaging company, effective August 4, 2015.
As a result, Les Pros will carry forward the Black’s brand.
In July 2015, we announced that the TELUS Garden real estate joint venture, in which
TELUS is a 50% partner and Westbank Projects Corp. is the other partner, had issued
$225 million of 3.4% green bonds, secured by the office tower, due in 2025. This is the
first time in North America that green mortgage bonds have been used to support real
estate financing. Proceeds of the issuance were primarily used to retire short-term
construction financing for the office tower. The TELUS Garden development in the heart
of downtown Vancouver includes a 24-storey office tower that is LEED platinum certified,
as well as a 53-storey residential condominium tower built to LEED gold standards which
is scheduled to open in 2016.
In September 2015, we announced the opening of TELUS Garden’s office tower. The
one-million-square-foot development includes 450,000 square feet of office space and
65,000 square feet of retail space. The office tower houses our new global headquarters,
as well as other tenants.
Going to market as one team under a common brand, executing a single strategy
Our top corporate priority is putting customers first as we strive to consistently deliver
exceptional client experiences and become the most recommended company in the
markets we serve.
By the end of November 2013, we adjusted our practices as necessary to achieve
compliance with the requirements of the CRTC’s Wireless Code, which came into effect
on December 2, 2013. We support the Code, and have been the leader in adopting
many of its customer-friendly provisions long before the Code was drafted. Some of the
customer-friendly initiatives we introduced over the past few years include: notifications
for data usage in Canada and while roaming abroad to increase awareness of costs
(2010); easy and inexpensive device unlocking after 90 days (2011); the elimination of
device activation fees for new and renewing customers (2012); the introduction of Share
Plus plans (2013) and Your Choice plans (2014); increased frequency of real-time data
usage notifications (2015); increased data allotments in Your Choice plans (2015) and
the launch of the US Easy Roam service for customers travelling in the United States
(2015).
To fully align with the Code, we made several modifications to policies and procedures.
We implemented domestic and international data blocks and notifications at $50 and
$100, respectively, to help customers control their data usage and complement our
industry-leading notifications capability. In the summer of 2013, we introduced two-year
pricing plans. These plans offer data sharing and unlimited nationwide talk and text and