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.

[5] 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 of the Progressive Conservative Party, began the process of privatizing 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.