Tag: Freedom Mobile

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Tony Staffieri confident Rogers-Shaw merger will close

The Rogers-Shaw merger has faced several roadblocks, but Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri’s confidence isn’t wavering.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Staffieri is “confident the deal will close” despite the Competition Bureau’s work to block it. The bureau originally filed its application in May, stating the merger will lead to higher cellphone bills for Canadians, among other issues.

In order to sway the bureau, Rogers stated it will sell Freedom Mobile, Shaw’s wireless business, to Quebecor to increase competition. “Quebecor will have a better cost structure than they would have had on their own,” Staffieri said.

However, the Competition Commissioner doesn’t agree with that logic. Documents filed by the commissioner in September label the transaction as anti-competitive.

“The sale of Freedom “fails to eliminate the substantial lessening and prevention of competition the proposed transaction will cause,” the document states.

Mediations will begin this week. If talks fail, as they previously have, a hearing will be held next month.

Source: The Globe and Mail

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Toronto Freedom Mobile location engulfed in flames

A Freedom Mobile location was engulfed in flames, and it was all captured on TikTok.

Set to the tune of Super Freaky Girl by Nicki Minaj, the 14-second video posted on September 27th by @bitchonarrival shows the storefront of a Freedom Mobile location on Church Street going up in flames.

It’s not clear if anyone was injured in the blaze, and Freedom has stayed quiet on its social media accounts. Google lists the store location as temporarily closed.

But after looking through the comments, I can confirm the telecom drama lived on.

@bitchonarrival

Shawty fire burnin on the dance floor 💃 #fyp #fire #viral #timelapse #boa

♬ Super Freaky Girl – Nicki Minaj

“Rogers, Bell, and 4 others liked this,” wrote one user under the video. “Freedom mobile is what keeps the big guys on their toes,” read another comment.

All jokes aside, really hoping no one was injured in the fire.

You can check out the video for yourself here.

Source: @bitchonarrival/ TikTok

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Mobile Syrup

Competition Commissioner, Rogers separately demand answers to each other’s questions

The trial between the Competition Bureau and Rogers and Shaw is roughly two months away. However, both parties appear to be having difficulty gathering information to help their case and are appealing to the Competition Tribunal to intervene.

The Commissioner of Competition wants Rogers to answer questions it says were “improperly refused” during an examination of a company representative.

Dean Prevost, president of integration at Rogers, was answering questions on August 25th and 26th on behalf of Rogers. The Commissioner’s application states Rogers took some questions under advisement and refused others. On September 6th, Rogers delivered a document that provided reasoning for its actions to those questions.

The Commissioner will present the motion to the tribunal on September 13th, asking Rogers to provide answers to its 23 questions within a week of approval. The questions have been redacted from the document shared with the public.

The application states the questions “are not unreasonable, unnecessary, or unduly onerous, and the information and documents sought are not privileged.”

Motion for Shaw

The Commissioner will also file a similar motion for Shaw.

The Commissioner’s legal team examined Paul McAleese, Shaw’s president, on August 22nd and 23rd. Shaw provided a document on September 2nd, answering certain undertakings. The Commissioner’s motion states that parts of the document are illegible, and Shaw withheld the answer to one question.

The two questions the Commissioner has for Shaw relates to the company providing ‘legible’ copies of the company’s board of directors for the past three years and an analysis of synergies of the merger.

Questions from Rogers and Shaw

Rogers and Shaw filed a similar motion relating to the examination of Kristen McLean on August 24th and 25th, an analyst for the Competition Bureau.

Rogers says the Commissioner provided answers about undertakings and McLean’s refusal to answer specific questions on September 6th. However, the answers “were refused and/or have been deficiently answered,” Rogers says.

It’s not clear what those questions are as the application redacts identifying information.

However, the information available points to the questions likely related to the sale of Freedom and its impact on competition. The Commissioner has stated the deal of Freedom to Vidéotron won’t appease competition concerns.

“Respectfully, the Commissioner’s refusals do not serve this process or the tribunal,” Rogers states in its motion. Furthermore, it says the refusal to answer questions and produce certain documents is detrimental to their understanding and defence of the case.

“This is not an extravagant request or a fishing expedition. Its probative value cannot be disputed,” Rogers argues.

“Its contents are critical to a fair and just determination. Rogers, Shaw, and Vidéotron should not be forced to trial without it.”

The recent filing follows questions Rogers posed on September 6th regarding the most recent response on the sale of Freedom Mobile to Vidéotron.

Source: Competition Tribunal

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Mobile Syrup

Rogers, Shaw, Quebecor sign definitive agreement for Freedom sale

In a news release published the morning of August 12th, Rogers, Shaw, and Quebecor said they had signed a definitive agreement for the sale of Freedom Mobile.

According to the companies, the agreement is “substantially consistent” with the terms previously announced in June. The deal will see Shaw and Rogers sell Freedom Mobile to Quebecor subsidiary Vidéotron for $2.85 billion, conditional on regulatory approval of the Rogers-Shaw merger.

In the release, the three companies said they “strongly believe” selling Freedom will provide ” the best opportunity to create a strong fourth national wireless services provider and addresses the concerns raised by the Commissioner of Competition and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, [François-Philippe Champagne,]” over the Rogers-Shaw merger.

Additionally, the release reiterated Quebecor’s past commitement to leverage the combined businesses of Vidéotron and Freedom to launch a national 5G offering with the former’s 3500MHz spectrum holdings.

Along with being conditional on the Rogers-Shaw merger, it’s worth noting that the Freedom sale would also be dependent on clearance under the Competition Act, as well as approval from Minister Champagne.

As for the Rogers-Shaw merger, it has already been approved by Shaw shareholders, the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). However, it remains subject to review by the Competition Tribunal and approval from Minister Champagne.

It’s worth noting that the Commissioner of Competition filed to block the merger in May, which led to the Competition Bureau, Rogers, and Shaw participating in tribunal mediation, although those mediation efforts failed in July.

However, if the Rogers-Shaw merger goes through and Vidéotron acquires Freedom Mobile, that will only resolve one of the multiple competition concerns with the merger. Along with wireless networks (which the Freedom deal would impact), there are concerns about combining Shaw’s internet and broadband services with Rogers. Those concerns have grown following the massive nationwide Rogers network outage on July 8th (dubbed ‘Red Friday’ by some).

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Freedom Mobile outage impacting Ontario and Quebec customers

Shaw’s Freedom Mobile also appears to be having issues, although it’s not clear if the problem is connected to the ongoing Rogers outage.

The provider’s support Twitter account replied to a user saying it was “experiencing an outage in Southern Ontario” and that it was working on a fix. Other reports indicate the Freedom network is down in Quebec too.

MobileSyrup has reached out to Freedom Mobile for clarification about the ongoing issues and will update this piece with further details.

Ookla’s Downdetector.ca also shows a spike in issues, with the outage map highlighting parts of Ontario, Alberta, and B.C.

Overall, it seems like most Canadians are experiencing at least some level of communications disruption today. Rogers’ outage has had a huge impact nationwide, and Bell and Telus have tweeted that their customers aren’t affected (although customers say otherwise).

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Regional providers charging less for wireless, broadband, and mobile internet services in most cases: study

Aerial view of mobiel phone cell tower over forested rural area of West Virginia to illustrate lack of broadband internet service

A study prepared for the Government of Canada found national flanker brands are charging more for wireless services in some cases than regional providers.

The study also found a similar difference in prices for wholesale-based competitors and regional companies providing mobile internet services.

The study, commissioned every year for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, examines the three categories over “service baskets” or levels. Each category has a different number of baskets that reflects service volumes that capture usage levels by Canadians.

Mobile wireless

The study examined wireless services on eight different levels. Level one included voice minutes and texts. Level 2 only involves 1GB of data. Levels three to eight include unlimited talk and text, with varying amounts of data.

The comparison found prices offered by regional providers, including Freedom, SaskTel, Xplore Mobile, Videotron, and Eastlink, are between 6 and 22 percent lower than national incumbents, including Bell and Telus. Prices mostly greatly contrasted between incumbents and regional providers in Ontario and BC, where Freedom offers services.

The study also found that incumbents that offered flanker brands (Virgin, Fido, and Koodo) didn’t always provide the lower cost. “Flankers were higher priced 15 times and lower-priced 13 times. We do note that regional provider prices were consistently lower than flanker prices in Ontario and BC.”

Reseller plans that offer the same service levels as national providers were consistently priced lower. Most regions examined in the study also had a service provider or reseller available that charged less for specific levels than national providers.

Internationally, Canada, the U.S., and Japan have the highest wireless prices. The analysis found Japan charged more for all levels than Canada, except for Level 8, which features unlimited talk and text and between 20 and 49GB of data.

Fixed broadband internet

The study broke download speeds into seven different levels. Level one involved speeds between 3 and 9Mbps. Level seven involves speeds greater than 500Mbps.

Where both parties offer plans, incumbents offer higher prices than wholesale-based competitors (WBC) on four levels, all on the lower end of speeds. WBC plans are priced 8 to 18 percent lower. But the opposite is true for services with faster speeds. WBC plans cost 15 percent more than the incumbent.

Overall, Canada has higher prices on most levels than the U.S. Canada also saw higher prices in 2021 compared to 2020 on almost all levels. Comparatively, prices in the U.S. have been declining over the last couple of years. Compared to Japan, Canada has higher prices on the three lower levels.

Mobile internet

The study includes four levels: level one includes mobile plans with 2 to 4GB of data a month, level two includes 5 to 10GB of data, level three has 11 to 49GB, and level four includes plans with 50 to 99GB of data.

The study found regional providers are charging 25 percent less than incumbent providers for level one in all provinces except Quebec. For level two it’s 21 percent less, level three is 18 percent less, and level four is 37 percent less, respectively. Regional providers are uniformly charging more for mobile data than incumbents in Quebec.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

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Shaw’s revenue declined by 2.1 percent in the third quarter

Shaw’s third-quarter financial report shows its revenue is remains in decline, continuing the downwards direction it shared in its Q2 report.

The company decreased its Q3 revenue by 2.1 percent year-over-year.

Financial contributions from Shaw’s wireless division offset this figure, which increased its financial contribution by $13 million (or 4.4 percent) compared to Q3 2021. The company reported $20 million in revenue from an increased subscriber base but this figure was offset by $7 million in decreased equipment revenue.

Shaw added 35,012 new subscribers and 19,392 were postpaid, a decrease year-over-year. It said this was because of “strong wireless competition,” limited access to devices, bundle adjustment, and “moderating” demand for its plans.

The company reported a similar revenue decrease for its wireline division, which dropped by almost four percent. The company lost more than 24,000 paying users.

Freedom Mobile

Shaw doesn’t plan to keep Freedom Mobile under its control for much longer. Along with Rogers, the company decided to sell Freedom Mobile to Québecor in order to appease competition concerns.

“We feel strongly that the sale of Freedom to Québecor will be seen as a positive outcome by the regulators as Quebecor expands their successful wireless operations through this acquisition,” Brad Shaw, Shaw’s CEO, said.

The three companies are working to finalize documentation by July 15th, Shaw notes. Regulatory bodies need to approve the sale, but that won’t happen until they finalize Rogers’ takeover of Shaw.

The two companies are taking part in a mediation process with the Commissioner of Competition this week. The commissioner filed to block the merger in May, stating it isn’t a good deal for Canadians. Shaw and Rogers filed their own responses stating the commissioner’s reasoning was flawed. If mediation fails, the commissioner’s application will go before the tribunal towards the end of the year.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Shaw

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Freedom Mobile doubled market share between 2015 and 2020: study

Freedom Mobile is the fastest-growing carrier in the country.

A new study by comparison platform HelloSafe found Freedom Mobile, formerly called Wind Mobile, held nearly six percent of carrier market share in 2020, an increase from the 3.2 percent recorded in 2015. The study shows Freedom Mobile was only one of two carriers examined to increase this figure.

While the Big Three continued to dominate in Canada, their market share decreased from 90.4 percent in 2015 to 87.8 percent in 2020. Rogers decreased its market share by 0.5 percent, Bell by 0.3 percent, and Telus by 1.8 percent, respectively.

The number of cellphone subscribers in Canada grew by 3.6 million between 2015 and 2020. Rogers gained 1.1 million subscribers in the last five years, and Freedom Mobile followed closely behind with more than 982,000.

As the study notes, the Big Three continued to dominate the market, but smaller players, specifically Vidéotron, SaskTel and Freedom Mobile, made steady ground.

The collective market share of these “smaller” players reached 12.2 percent in 2020, an increase from the 9.6 percent recorded in 2015.

But not all small players are alike.

Freedom Mobile’s subscribers grew by nearly 105 percent between 2015 and 2020. Vidéotron also saw similar success, with its subscriber base (and market share) growing by almost 93 percent in the same period. But SaskTel, the dominant provider in Saskatchewan, decreased its subscriber base by 618,000 in that period.

Freedom Mobile’s future

“Freedom Mobile is now a strong 4th player in the Canadian phone service market,” the study states.

But the success of this “fourth player” could change down the road — Vidéotron’s parent company Québecor is currently acquiring Freedom Mobile. 

Rogers is selling the asset, owned by Shaw, to create a strong fourth carrier and appease competition concerns surrounding its takeover of Shaw. Pending regulatory approval, the sale is yet to be approved as critics question how the acquisition would lower cellphone bills.

Wind’s former founder, Anthony Lacavera, also appealed to regulatory bodies to reject the deal. His investment firm, Globalive Capital, offered $900 million more than Québecor to acquire Freedom Mobile.

Rogers’ takeover of Shaw is also in trouble after the Commissioner of Competition blocked the merger in May, stating it would lead Canadians to pay more for wireless services. Rogers, Shaw, and the commissioner will take part in a confidential mediation process on July 4th and 5th.

Source: HelloSafe

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Anthony Lacavera asks regulators to block Québecor’s Freedom Mobile acquisition

Anthony Lacavera has written to regulatory bodies to reject the sale of Freedom Mobile to Québecor in his latest act of protest.

The chairman of Globalive said Rogers “consistently refused to engage” with the company and their $3.75 billion offer to buy Freedom Mobile, The Globe and Mail reports. Globalive’s offer is worth $900 million more than Québecor’s $2.85 billion purchase.

Rogers announced its decision to sell Freedom Mobile earlier this month in a bid to please regulatory bodies who said Rogers shouldn’t be allowed to take over Freedom Mobile as part of its $26 billion merger with Shaw.

Rogers will retain 450,000 customers whose wireless services come bundled with cable and internet.

“We are (and have always been) prepared to acquire Shaw Mobile and to continue to offer bundled services to its 450,000 customers,” Lacavera wrote in the letter addressed to Matthew Boswell, the Commissioner of Competition, and Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development François-Philippe Champagne.

Lacavera told The Globe and Mail that government intervention is needed to ensure the sale benefits Canadians and not the company’s shareholders.

Rogers “will always choose a weaker competitor over a stronger one as this is obviously the best business decision for Rogers,” he wrote.

Lacavera’s investment firm founded Freedom Mobile in 2008. Formerly known as Wind Mobile, Shaw bought the company in 2016 for $1.6 billion and rebranded it. The former founder expressed his interest in buying back the company before it was even on the market. 

The purchase is still a possibility, given the proposal to sell Freedom Mobile to Québecor needs regulatory approval. Minister Champagne said his office would focus on affordability when examining the transaction.

“What is going to be framing our decision is going to make sure that rates are more affordable [and] that we have more competition in Canada that can foster innovation for decades to come,” he said at the Collision conference in Toronto last week.

Rogers needs similar regulatory approval for its takeover of Shaw. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is the only body to approve the merger. The Competition Bureau has sought to block it. The bureau and the two companies have agreed to a meditation process set to take place on July 4th and 5th. The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development also needs to provide approval.

Source: The Globe and Mail 

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Minister Champagne repeats the need for affordability on Rogers-Shaw merger

Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, said his main focus of all the transactions surrounding Rogers takeover of Shaw is affordability.

“My role is to make sure that rates are affordable, and in Canada, that we have more competition and innovation,” he told reporters at the Collision conference in Toronto.

Speaking on the sale of Freedom Mobile to Québecor lead to a similar answer, with Champagne telling the crowd his department will examine telecom affordability when a submission is made about the sale.

“What is going to be framing our decision is going to make sure that rates are more affordable [and] that we have more competition in Canada that can foster innovation for decades to come.”

Champagne has repeated these words a number of times in the last weeks, an idea that was also shared in a report the industry and technology committee tabled in March, asking Champagne to reject the merger if Shaw’s wireless licenses for Freedom Mobile aren’t sold off.

Rogers since agreed to sell Freedom to Montreal-based Québecor and the deal is waiting on approval from regulatory bodies. But whether or not the sale will answer Champagne’s quest for affordability is yet to be determined.

According to reporting from the Toronto Star, critics say the side deal won’t bring lower wireless prices for Canadians.

John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, told the publication Québecor won’t be as aggressive as an independent competitor because if the company impacts the wireless services of the Big Three outside of Quebec, they can reduce their prices and take their valuable customers in Quebec.

David Soberman, professor of marketing at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, also told the publication he doesn’t believe the transaction will reduce prices.

“If what we’re looking for is a situation where there’s truly competition and truly a reduction in phone rates, I don’t think this is going to have much of an effect,” he told the Toronto Star.

The $26-billion Rogers-Shaw merger is also facing pushback from the Competition Bureau over claims the Rogers and Shaw merger will reduce competition.