Bell and Telus merging?

[starseed]

http://mobilesyrup.com/2009/08/12/be...g-year-or-two/

Jonathan Allen, of RBC Dominion Securities Inc. has said in a report today that “Faced with cyclical and secular pressures on the top-line, we believe that a BCE-Telus merger is increasingly likely in the coming year or two as both companies look to cut costs and sustain margins. There is only so much cost cutting that can be achieved individually. The scale benefits from a merger of Bell and Telus are substantial”.

They have been working together for a while now, but merging? I do not see this as a good thing seeing as how they own 60% of the market...

Oh well, better coverage for me I guess. Maybe this will give the government motivation to step in and control the gouging.

[GrrlGoalie33]

How likely is this though with both companies spending billions of dollars in upgrading their networks to HPSA technology?

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by Frankster

How likely is this though with both companies spending billions of dollars in upgrading their networks to HPSA technology?

Don't they already use each other's towers?

[GrrlGoalie33]

Probably, but there are reports of both companies spending very large amounts of money to upgrade their networks in time to reap some of the roaming fees during the 2010 games.

[Cliche]

Only by picking such unrepresentative "representative" call packages, could the OECD have reached such a result. For example, the OECD defines a "medium use" customer as someone making 780 minutes of calls a year, and sending 600 SMS and 8 MMS messages a year. And the report says that based on their methodology, a U.S. customer would pay $53 a month in order to get that level of service. But that assumed "medium" basket works out to about 63 minutes, 50 SMS messages, and less than one MMS message a month. That just doesn't reflect reality.

Source:http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/12/u...ensive-cellph/

You know, my usage and plan work out that way, and it's a grandfathered plan as well.
(53$ for pretty much on avg 1 hour of cellular service per month)

After a while, you have to consider what the market will bear, and the interest of the consumer. Have we reached such maximum saturation with their products? Subscriber growth at all 3 (Telus, Bell, Rogers) was less than 10% year over year from 08-09.

[mykalberta]

I dont see it.

BCE share owners are looking for anyway to maximize their return since the latest attempt failed when the credit markets collapsed.

It will never be alliowed on the POTS side, maybe wireless.

I can see Telus trying to buy the BEV and Wireless units of BCE, but the Internet and POTS, there is no point since the gov wont allow it.

[rubecube]

I can only hope. This would help my shares go back up.

[Esoteric]

If this happens, I am definitely switching to Rogers when my contract ends.

[TheU]

No, this is not happening.