Tag: Rogers-Shaw hearing

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This week in Canadian telecom: Telus’ attempted to impact Rogers-Shaw merger [Nov. 12-18]

The Competition Tribunal has completed week two of its hearing into the Rogers-Shaw merger, and the public had a front-row seat. Chief Justice Paul Crampton started the week by addressing the hearing’s lack of transparency and unnecessary in-camera sessions, leading to once-confidential documents being available for public view. The move led to several revelations.

More on the merger, and other telecom news in Canada, is recapped below.

Business

Telus attempted to sway the outcome of the Rogers-Shaw merger. Details were shared in internal documents presented during the Competition Tribunal’s hearing. The project called ‘Project Fox’ included Telus meeting with politicians “to kill, shape and slow the deal.”

The hearing also revealed that Distributel wanted to buy Freedom Mobile and made two proposals to Rogers. Distributel made the offers before Bell announced plans to purchase the company (subject to regulatory approval).

SaskTel has added $100 million to its Rural Fibre Initiative. The project connects Saskatchewan residents with SaskTel’s infiNET Service, delivering internet speeds close to 1Gbps. The additional funds will connect 80 towns and villages.

As the demand for new phone numbers in Canada continues to grow, the Telecommunications Alliance is introducing new area codes across the country. Residents in Southwestern Ontario will see a new 382 area code in June 2023. The area code will serve areas that have access to 226, 519, and 548 area codes.

The federal government has ended its partnership with Bell Let’s Talk. The annual mental health initiative sees the telecom giant donate every time people use #BellLetsTalk on social media on the designated day.

Deals

With Black Friday around the corner, carriers have released deals on devices and services. A full rundown of all the deals is available here. Some of the discounts are highlighted below.

Freedom is offering savings on Samsung and Pixel devices for Black Friday. Learn more here.

SaskTel is putting discounts on its wireless and wireline services, including offering $100 in credit for new internet customers.

Fido’s Black Friday deals include various device discounts, such as the Google Pixel 6a 128GB with Fido Payment Program for $10/mo for 24 months. A list of discounts is available here. 

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Mobile Syrup

Distributel proposed to buy Freedom Mobile, but its offers were ignored

Distributel was looking to acquire Shaw’s wireless assets in April, a publicly shared document at the Competition Tribunal’s hearing into the Rogers-Shaw merger show.

Distributel made two proposals, but Rogers never acknowledged the offers. Distributel made the offers before Bell announced it was acquiring the Ottawa-based telecommunications company.

The affidavit of Christopher Hickey, director of regulatory affairs at Distributel, says Bell’s acquisition wasn’t related to efforts to acquire Freedom Mobile from Shaw.

Another document shared with the public acknowledges the acquisitions of Ebox, which Bell announced it would take over, and VMedia, which Québecor acquired. The document calls the latter acquisition a “strategic” move, citing the Rogers-Shaw merger.

Rogers started meeting with prospective Freedom Mobile buyers earlier this year. As previously reported, the company was talking with multiple parties to secure a deal to satisfy competition concerns brought by Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne. The company agreed to sell Freedom to Québecor subsidiary Vidéotron for $2.85 billion. It’s not clear how much Distributel offered.

Distributel’s plans were revealed on day five of the hearing, which is in its second week. The day started with cross-examining representatives from Telus, which showed the company attempted to “kill, shape, and slow” the merger.

The details, marked initially to be confidential, were shared with the public after Chief Justice Paul Crampton said the parties needed to make efforts to be transparent. The first week of the merger saw the parties going behind closed doors on several occasions. Justice Crampton’s move to make things public suggests not everything discussed in-camera in week one needed to be that way.

Despite the transparency efforts, not all witnesses appeared before the public. Namely, Comcast, the American telecom company, had their session behind closed doors. The company argued they were only made aware of the need to be in a public session 20 minutes before they had to speak, and their prepared statement was made with complete confidentially in mind.

Image credit: Shutterstock

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Mobile Syrup

Telus attempted to sway Rogers-Shaw merger, internal documents show

Vancouver-based telecom giant Telus made attempts to alter the $26 billion merger between Rogers and Shaw, internal documents show.

The efforts were initially presented to Telus’s board under the name ‘Project Fox,’ and were shared during the Competition Tribunal’s hearing into the matter.

“Continued execution of our top-of-house strategy where ELT meets with political leaders to kill, shape and slow the deal,” the presentation reads.

ELT refers to the executive leadership team. Persuasion attempts included discussions with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) to block Québecor’s acquisition of Freedom Mobile.

The board meeting took place in August 2022, and the slides were initially kept from public view. After redactions, the document became available for the public to see, in an attempt to make the hearing transparent.

In its second week, the first week primarily consisted of questioning witnesses away from the view of the public, creating issues of transparency. Chief Justice Crampton started Monday’s session by addressing the issue and the need to keep matters public.

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Rogers issued $150 million in credits for July outage, Q3 results show

Rogers reveals it added thousands of wireless subscribers during its third quarter of 2022.

There was 221,000 mobile phone net adds, an increase of 30,000 year-over-year.

The company reports a revenue of $3.7 billion, a 2 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year.

Rogers also issued $150 million in credits relating to its July outage.

More to come…

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Rogers

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Mobile Syrup

Day one of Rogers-Shaw hearing focuses on Freedom Mobile and competition concerns

Monday marked day one of the long-anticipated hearing between Rogers, Shaw and the Competition Bureau, with the parties arguing what the sale of Freedom Mobile would mean for Canadians.

The Competition Bureau said plans to give up Freedom Mobile would not address anti-competitive issues as Rogers will inherit assets that will impact how Freedom Mobile functions.

“The divestiture will not replace the vigorous, disruptive and growing competitive presence offered by Shaw in the market,” John Tyhurst, a lawyer representing the Competition Bureau, said in his opening statement.

Tyhurst said the Competition Bureau has accepted the proposed acquisition will remove concerns of lessening competition in Ontario, but that still won’t be the case in Alberta and B.C.

Under the current contract, Rogers will acquire 450,000 Shaw Mobile customers who bundle wireless services with cable and internet services. Tyhurst argued Rogers would attain cable and Wi-Fi infrastructure, the mentioned customers, and personnel that support Freedom, impacting how well Vidéotron will be able to compete.

Kent Thomson, a lawyer representing Shaw, said if the transaction for Freedom Mobile to be acquired by Vidéotron is blocked, Canadians will be at a loss.

“If this transaction moves forward, it will not change the number of wireless service providers in Ontario, Alberta or British Columbia. All that will happen is Vidéotron will step into the shoes of Freedom. In doing so, it will be able to compete more effectively and aggressively.”

Thomson argued the proposed transaction wouldn’t shrink competition, “significantly” change market shares, or alter concentration levels. He said Freedom’s market share in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C is below 15 percent.

Vidéotron has no presence in Alberta and B.C. and a “very modest presence” in Ontario, Thomson said. While Rogers will acquire customers from Shaw Mobile in Alberta and B.C, its market share will only increase by five percent if the transaction to sell Freedom is approved.

Jonathan Lisus, a lawyer representing Rogers, took a similar tone. He said the Competition Bureau is making it seem like Vidéotron is a “vulnerable dependent.” Lisus argues that Freedom “will be a much stronger competitor [under Vidéotron] than it was with Shaw.”

The parties presented their arguments to Chief Justice Paul Crampton. During Lisus’ opening statements, Crampton received multiple emails from people saying he should reject Rogers’ takeover of Shaw.

“My email account is getting bombarded by a very, very large number of emails, all with slightly different subject lines along the lines of ‘no to Rogers Shaw,’” Crampton said. “Whoever is organizing these needs to stop. It’s highly improper. I’m not going to open those emails.”