I don't know the details but the following is what i suspect
Both phones and store rents are expensive, consider also the salaries for store clerks, salaries for phone support ( for stores, yes they have their own phone support completely different from customer phone support, they dont cross, they dont train together, they operate with different codes and may not even have the access to the same system), there are managers, regional managers, assistance (from buying phones making deals with manufacturers, to store decoration etcetc), that also complicates the books and accounting. So every store comes with basket of needs, but what probably triples the cost is that all of them together create complex system.
So getting rid of phones and all that inventory already trims a lot.
Next getting rid of on demand call support also helps as less people are needed, if you have it on demand peek hours need lots of manpower. But this current model allows for flat number of people working (i suspect). And by removing simple tasks and moving it to users with the community they really optimise the use of paid staff ( moderators). It's also possible that this makes it very predictable about new hirings needed, I'm not staying its linear but i suspect that they have pretty good idea when they are hitting numbers of subscribers. Offcourse if you look back at the community conversations you will see that it's not perfect, hidden bugs are always problem and they tend to come out right after good promotions that attracted lots of attention in the market. But they seem to be handling it better and faster now. Though some bugs are persistent for years now.
I hope they are making money and telus keeps them around. We know that at least it keeps customers away from telus competitors. Im sure if needed telus would find the way to move (lure) us vertically if needed. I know there are some moves between public and koodo, it's good thing to have something available for your customer when their needs change
