BIG
On this week’s SyrupCast, Patrick O’Rourke, Brad Bennett and Jon Lamont chat about Rogers’ $26 billion takeover of Shaw (we’ll record a dedicated SyrupCast telecom episode soon), Nothing’s new Ear (2) wireless earbuds and the secret video project Brad Bennett’s been working on for the last few months.
As always, you can listen to the podcast below or stream it on your favourite audio platform:
2023 is just two weeks old, but the telecom news isn’t coming in slowly. Some companies have already released Q1 financial results for the year, while others have changed the way they’ll make financial donations.
As a recap, here’s almost everything that happened in Canada’s telecom sector this week.
Bell is changing its donation method for Bell Let’s Talk Day. The company typically gives five cents for every message shared on the day. But it’s now retiring the practice for a $10 million donation instead. It’s unclear why Bell went this route.
The telecom giant also rolled out 3Gbps speed and 5G+ in Atlantic Canada. The latter service is now available in Moncton, Riverview, Mount Pearl, and Halifax.
ISP TekSavvy says Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne must block Rogers’ $26-billion takeover of Shaw. Peter Nowak, the company’s spokesman, said ISPs are being “squeezed out,” and the Minister must take action.
The Competition Bureau is set to face the Federal Court of Appeal on January 24th to argue against the Competition Tribunal’s approval of Rogers’ merger with Shaw. In its original appeal, the bureau argued the tribunal should’ve solely focused on the Rogers-Shaw merger instead of Vidéotron’s commitment to acquire Freedom Mobile. The tribunal said it would’ve reached its conclusion to support the larger merger either way. In its updated appeal, the bureau said the tribunal failed to explain why that would’ve been the case.
SaskTel has launched Cloud PVR service on maxTV Stream, allowing users to record up to 300 hours of content.
The University of Waterloo is leading a group of companies and academics to create technologies that will protect Canada’s national security through 5G. École de technologie supérieure in Montréal, University of Regina, BlackBerry, NoviFlow, Rockport Networks and Rogers are part of the consortium.
Shaw reported adding 12,000 new wireless prepaid customers in the first quarter of 2023. However, the company’s overall revenue decreased.
Cogeco also released its Q1 financial results for the year, bringing in $762 million in revenue. Despite the revenue increase, the company projects growth will slow this year.
The House of Common’s industry and technology committee will hold a second hearing on Rogers’ merger with Shaw, according to The Globe and Mail.
Public Mobile is offering new customers 5GB of bonus data per month for eight months. Read the details here.
Koodo and Virgin have increased the cost of their unlimited talk and text plans to $33/ month. This is a significant price increase, considering the plans used to close $27 back in August 2022.
Fido has discounted some of its plans by $10/month for Lunar New Year. More specifics are available here.
The Competition Tribunal is close to concluding its hearing into Rogers’ takeover of Shaw.
The evidence portion of the hearing, which took place over the last four weeks, concluded Thursday. It featured testimony from witnesses, including executives from Rogers, economists, and professors.
The first week was largely spent in camera, in private sessions away from the public view. The second week started with a push from Chief Justice Paul Crampton, who is overseeing the hearing as part of a three-member panel, to have more of the hearing available to the public.
That led to scores of documents once labelled confidential being publicly shared through cross-examinations. It revealed Telus’ plans to “kill, shape, and slow” the merger and Distributel’s attempts to buy Freedom Mobile.
However, the hearing didn’t stay in public for long. Several instances of confidential information in the last two weeks led to long periods in camera.
The Competition Bureau wants the tribunal to block the $26 billion merger, which would also see the divestiture of Freedom Mobile. Québecor subsidiary Vidéotron is buying the company for $2.85 billion.
The bureau’s lawyers have argued that separating Freedom from Shaw will create a weakened competitor. Rogers will still be attaining 450,000 Shaw Mobile customers.
Lawyers from Rogers, Shaw, and Québecor have argued that Freedom will be a strong fourth competitor under Vidéotron.
Parties will give oral arguments on December 13th and 14th. Crampton says he hopes to present a decision before Christmas.
Rogers’ plans to merge with Shaw will offer the latter company a lifeline to compete effectively, the Competition Tribunal’s hearing into the merger was told Monday.
Trevor English, Shaw’s chief financial officer, said the company didn’t see a path forward as a standalone company and consolidating within the telecom sector was something they thought about before, he said.
“We’ve really felt like the best outcome for all constituents was a partnership and a sale to a strategic operator that has the operational scale to effectively compete in the future,” English said during his testimony.
Shaw entered the wireless market through the purchase of Wind Mobile in 2016. The company was later rebranded to Freedom Mobile. English said the company has had difficulty competing with Telus in Western Canada.
The hearing is currently in its third week and will conclude next month. The panel will deliver its decision in January.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Via: Bloomberg
Shaw TV and Shaw Stream customers can now access Disney+ through both platforms.
Further, new customers on select plans tied to Shaw TV or Shaw Stream can get Disney+ for free for up to 24 months. Disney+ typically costs $11.99 per month, which means this deal offers $287.76 in savings.
The app is also compatible with Shaw’s voice remote, allowing subscribers to perform voice searches.
As first reported by iPhone in Canada, only Shaw Fibre+ internet and Total TV bundles that cost $175 per month or higher qualify for the deal.
Disney+ features all of Disney’s Marvel TV shows and movies, Star Wars content like Andor, The Santa Clauses, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and more.
Source: Newswire Via: iPhone in Canada
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).
Telus and Shaw continue to dominate the mobile and fixed broadband fields in Canada, Ookla’s second quarter report reveals.
Telus is the fastest mobile operation, with a median download speed of 79.09Mbps, holding onto the title on Ookla’s Speedtest since Q3 2020.
Despite claiming the top spot, it’s important to note the company’s media speeds decreased over the past three months, a trend also seen in its big three partners Bell and Rogers.
Telus didn’t have similar success with 5G performance. The recent results show that Canada didn’t produce a “statistical winner,” but Bell and Telus led the way with speeds of 139.75Mbps and 137.17Mbps, respectively. Telus held the top spot in the last quarterly report the company produced.
Rogers 5G performance also decreased, going from speeds of 102.81Mbps in Q1 to speeds of 93.06 Mbps in Q2.
Rogers does report to have the fastest upload speeds with 9.21Mbps, as well as the lowest latency score among the big three. Bell and Telus score the same in latency with 26.
Shaw is the fastest fixed broadband provider, with a median download speed of 209.44Mbps. Shaw has held this title since Ookla’s Q1 2021 report.
Rogers takes second, with speeds of 197.94Mbps, and Bell is third with speeds of 137.98Mbps.
Shaw drops down to third place when looking at upload speeds. Ookla reports Shaw’s speeds at 57.96Mbps. Bell has the fastest upload speeds in this section with 106.81Mbps. Telus is second with 93.30Mbps.
Ookla also examined some of the fastest mobile devices available in Canada and found there was no statistical winner for the quarter. The same results are reported for manufacturer information. The analysis shows Samsung and Apple devices report similar download, upload, and latency scores.
Image credit: Ookla
Image credit: Shutterock
Source: Ookla
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) Minister François-Philippe Champagne said policymakers would include Rogers’ July 8th service outage when considering the company’s proposed takeover of Shaw Communications.
As the Globe and Mail reports, Champagne told reporters at an event in Calgary on Friday that the outage will “be on the mind of the different people who need to make a decision.”
The proposed $26 billion merger would combine Canada’s two largest cable networks. However, the Competition Bureau is already trying to block the deal over concerns it will lead to poorer service and higher prices, especially for wireless customers. Rogers and Shaw have attempted to ease those concerns by striking an agreement to sell Shaw’s Freedom Mobile to Quebecor, which owns Vidéotron, for $2.85 billion. Friday was the deadline for the companies to reach a definitive agreement.
Moreover, the House of Commons committee on industry and technology adopted a motion on Friday to study the July 8th Rogers outage. The committee plans to review the cause of the outage, its impact on families, consumers and businesses, and look at measures to prevent future outages and ways to provide the public with timely information about outages.
The Globe reports that there will be at least two meetings dedicated to the study before July 30th. The committee plans to invite representatives from Rogers, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and Champagne to appear.
A Rogers spokesperson told the Globe that the company will work with the committee to “provide details on the cause of the outage and the actions we are taking to enhance the reliability of each of our networks moving forward, including through formal mutual support agreements.”
For more on what caused the Rogers outage, check out MobileSyrup’s in-depth analysis here. Moreover, MobileSyrup detailed company plans revealed at an all-hands meeting Friday to separate wireless and wireline traffic to prevent future outages — you can read about that here.
Source: The Globe and Mail
Telecom companies, internet service providers (ISPs) and various government bodies have made a number of expansion announcements over the past month.
To help you keep track of them all, MobileSyrup has put together a roundup. You can also check the announcements out on the map below.
June 2: The governments of Canada and PEI invest $10 million to bring high-speed internet to all PEI homes.
June 3: The federal government grants Xplornet and Rogers millions to bring high-speed internet to 11,000 homes in New Brunswick.
June 30: The federal government and the Province of Quebec invest $8.2 million to bring high-speed internet to 25 rural communities.
June 3: Telus invests $10 million to bring its PureFibre network to Chaudière-Appalaches, Quebec.
June 9: The telecom provider announced it’s expanding its PureFibre network to Quebec’s Granit region.
June 10: Telus announced it would continue to expand its 5G network in Kamloops and Osoyoos and Oliver, B.C.
June 17: Telus shared it will deploy its 3500MHz spectrum. It’s available in several areas, including Toronto and Montreal.
June 8: The ISP announced the national availability of its Unified Communications solution
June 10: The company announced it would expand its pure fibre internet services to London, Ontario.
June 15: Bell announced details to deploy 5G+, which utilizes the 3500MHz spectrum.
June 15: The Toronto-based telecom provider announced it was the first to deploy the 3500MHz spectrum in Canada.
June 21: The company received $500,000 to bring high-speed internet to 280 households in West Bragg Creek, Alberta.
June 23: Eastlink announced it’s ready to install fibre in Mindemoya, Ontario, bringing high-speed internet access to 321 households.
June 30: Shaw launches a new internet tier for businesses starting at $195 a month.
Image credit: Shutterstock
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.
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