In 1985, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) restored competition in long-distance telephone service.

In April 1954, the federal government telephone system west of the Rockies was purchased and the operations split with the NWT.

In 1979, the BC Telephone Company acquired Automatic Electric Canada and formed "AEL Microtel".

The deregulation of the phone industry in the 1990s, combined with the competition between line and cell transmission technology, totally changed the business environment.

In a 1999 "merger of equals", BC Tel bought the smaller Telus, the telephone operating company in Alberta.

Initially registered as BCT.Telus, the merged company with headquarters in Burnaby, British Columbia, soon rebranded as Telus.