Telus targets $900 million in annual savings by 2028 as part of new strategy

VANCOUVER · Telus Corp. plans to find $900 million in annual cost savings by the end of 2028 as it divests non-core assets and focuses its investments on telecommunications and digital infrastructure. The company unveiled the transformation strategy on Friday alongside its third-quarter financial results, which showed a loss due to an $800 million non-cash charge related to its Telus Health division. President and CEO Victor Dodig, who took the helm in July, said the savings will come from a combination of sources, including modernizing customer service through its app. "A lot of it also has to do with the way we do business," Dodig said. "So, for example, having our customers deal with issues through our app and modernizing our app and putting more self-serve out there."

Dodig, the former chief executive of CIBC, said the telecom sector can learn from banking's efficiency with digital self-serve tools. "It takes a lot of pressure points and pain points out for customers, so we can focus our time on the things that matter most to them, and that's solving for their needs rather than solving for their problems," he said. The company expects about 80 per cent of the cash savings to come from its core telecom operations, with the rest from its global platform businesses. Telus said the strategy is designed to improve customer service, grow its subscriber base and increase revenue per product.

The plan includes monetizing non-core assets, with Telus Health and Telus Agriculture & Consumer Goods identified as near-term priorities for sale. Dodig said those businesses are "probably best in the hands of other capital providers over time so that we can take the resources that we free up and redeploy it into the Canadian telecom and digital infrastructure sector." He revealed the company is already in "advanced discussions on one Telus Health asset" with a prospective buyer. The goal, Dodig said, is to ensure Telus remains a leader in telecom and digital infrastructure during what he called an "investment super cycle" in Canada.

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Dodig said focusing on telecom will require significant investment, noting that over one million homes in Ontario and Quebec still lack access to fibre internet, with many more in Western Canada in the same situation. Telus will also expand its digital infrastructure, including through further investments in artificial intelligence data centres. Earlier this year, the company announced plans for three such facilities in British Columbia, adding to an existing one in Rimouski, Que. It also plans to use its fibre network to provide connectivity to data centres it does not own.

The company reported a loss attributable to common shares of $667 million, or 42 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That compares with a profit of $493 million, or 32 cents per share, in the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, Telus earned 16 cents per share, down from an adjusted profit of 24 cents per share a year ago. Operating revenue and other income totalled $5.03 billion, down from $5.11 billion a year earlier.

Dodig said Telus's core telecom business is showing signs of stabilization. Total telecom subscriber connections reached 18.3 million for the quarter, up from 17.2 million in the third quarter of 2025. The company added 84,000 net mobile phone subscribers, an increase of 2,000 compared to the previous year. Its mobile phone churn rate improved to 1.01 per cent from 1.11 per cent a year ago, which Telus attributed to customer retention efforts, network quality and promotions. Average revenue per mobile user was flat at $57.22. The company signed up 10,000 net internet customers, a decrease of 30,000 from the previous year, which it said reflects a shift toward "a greater emphasis on premium and profitable" subscriptions. Net additions of connected devices, such as tablets and smart watches, were 289,000, an increase of 120,000 year-over-year.

With files from The Canadian Press, BNN Bloomberg and Castanet