Tuesday July 12, 2022

July 12, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 12, 2022

Rogers outage won’t ‘sink’ $26-billion deal to buy Shaw, competition expert says

March 19, 2021

As the fallout from the Rogers Communications Inc. service outage continues to play out, one competition expert says she doesn’t think it will “sink” the telecom giant’s proposed $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc., but believes it will make everyone pay closer attention to the deal.

In an interview on Monday, University of Ottawa professor Jennifer Quaid said the only way the outage would have a negative impact on the deal would be if there was any evidence showing Rogers displayed a lack of thoroughness in reporting the circumstances due to limited competition in the market.

Quaid also said that there is now a bigger opportunity for regulators to take a closer look at cost savings from the proposed deal and whether those savings would come from eliminating redundancy systems and reducing technical staff.

Telecom researcher Ben Klass said the outage shows that further consolidation and concentration of power in the market is “a bad idea” for Canada.

“We are used to hearing that ‘bigger is better’ when it comes to telecommunication and technology companies, but last weekend’s outage shows that there are also significant risks associated with putting too many eggs in one basket,” he said. “There is strength and value in diversity and decentralization.”

Edward Jones analyst David Heger said the network outage is an additional risk factor for the Rogers-Shaw transaction, but doesn’t believe it will actually hurt it.

“Regulators may point to the outage as another reason why the merger concentrates too much customer traffic with one operator,” he said. “However, I still believe that the proposed sale of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile wireless operations to Quebecor (Inc.) should address this concern.”

The deadline for Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor to reach a definitive agreement on the sale of Freedom is July 15. (Yahoo Finance)

Wednesday September 4, 2013

September 5, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

Verizon’s exit leaves Harper with tricky wireless file

With the deadline to sign up for a spectrum auction looming and a major U.S. company out of the running, it looks doubtful anyone will burst onto the scene to compete against Bell, Telus and Rogers.

So with Verizon out, what now for a Conservative government that has long staked its ground on getting a fourth player into Canada’s wireless market?

Companies have until Sept. 17 to put down a deposit to participate in the auction of wireless spectrum, which will be held in January.

One route might be to delay the auction — an option Industry Minister James Moore’s office says it isn’t considering.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose says putting off the auction would be a politically tricky move since it has already been postponed.

“I think that’s politically very, very difficult to do. The government has already delayed the auction once,” he said.

Indeed, the consumer-oriented Conservatives have already been in the awkward position of being pitted against private companies who claim the auction process was rigged to favour foreign competitors over Canadian incumbents.

So the government may instead look at regulating things such as roaming fees, Ghose said.

Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission asked cellphone companies for data on their roaming fees. It will eventually fall to the commission to decide whether to regulate roaming rates if it finds companies are gouging consumers or limiting their choices.