RIP Mobilicity

[SebC]

RIP Mobilicity.

Rogers will stop new sign-ups to Mobilicity in the near future. Existing customers will be given a range of new plans and pricing options to pick from.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/roge...city-1.3576840

[Azure]

So, with Bell buying MTS the same problem now exists for MTS customers.

I currently pay $68 per month for unlimited data(throttled after 15 GB), unlimited MTS to MTS calling, free local calling, unlimited everything else. Only thing that costs is long distance minutes.

With Bell buying MTS, everyone expects the cost for plans in Manitoba to go up given the collusion between the big 3, but for me it would be acceptable if I pay $10 more for my exact same plan, and in exchange I got better service, faster LTE rollout, fiber internet, jobs in Manitoba, etc, etc. Everything that Bell is promising. But is that even to be expected? Because looking at comparable plans to mine, people are often paying $120-$150/month which is completely insane.

I honestly don't get why the government doesn't mandate that providers have to provide x amount of data per month for x dollars. I have some friends that work in the wholesale internet industry, and they say that buying bandwidth is dirt cheap. Considering a small regional carrier was able to offer what was essentially unlimited data to 500,000 plus people while still maintaining decent network service and uptime, it just goes to show that the complaints from the big 3 or any of the big ISPs that they can't offer that much data because it puts a drain on their network are a bunch of lies.

[FurnaceFace]

I suspect they still allow you to pay month to month at the grandfathered rate no? I have an older Bell plan that is now off contract but I'm still paying the same.

[Azure]

I suppose that would work. I've had my plan for 5 years now, so I'm actually wondering how that would work. One would imagine they would want people to upgrade.

It is a corporate plan. Not sure if that changes anything.

[Finger Cookin]

I hadn't heard about MTS being bought by Bell. Does that leave Sasktel as one of the last provincial mobile providers? Not sure about the situation in the maritimes.

[cam_wmh]

Videotron

[Azure]

Yeah SaskTel, which is a crown corporation and Videotron are the bigger players.

There are a few smaller ones like TbayTel, but they aren't near to being as big as Videotron, SaskTel or MTS.

I suppose if Shaw did something with Wind they could be pretty competitive.

MTS, SaskTel, Wind, TbayTel and Videotron merging could be pretty interesting.

[Finger Cookin]

Well, Bell bought MTS. And Shaw bought Wind. So they're not around to merge with the others, unless Bell or Shaw buys them too.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Azure

Yeah SaskTel, which is a crown corporation and Videotron are the bigger players.

There are a few smaller ones like TbayTel, but they aren't near to being as big as Videotron, SaskTel or MTS.

I suppose if Shaw did something with Wind they could be pretty competitive.

MTS, SaskTel, Wind, TbayTel and Videotron merging could be pretty interesting.

I see Shaw's Wind continuing to be a competitive in terms of pricing. That challenge with Shaw is they will need to sink massive capital in for new bandwidth and national network build outs before they can start even charging remotely close to the other players. That is years out so they will remain pretty competitive in pricing for that time. Hopefully by then the CRTC regulatory bits will catch up and Robellus will be broken up.

As for mergers/partnerships, I see Wind and Videotron being prime candidates first... They footprints don't overlap and Videotron has a ton of bandwidth bought all across the country in the 700Mhz block and they don't have anywhere near the capital to do the national network tower/backbone buildout for that without significant cash infusion from somewhere. All of these Spectrum licenses also expire if nothing is done with them in a specific timeframe. Wind/Shaw has towers up in all of those areas that spectrum has been bought in all the areas Videotron bought in. So this only makes sense.

MTS has been already bought by Bell. Sasktel is a crown corp. Mergers between those two are very unlikely to happen unless regulatory does not approve the MTS deal.

[Azure]

Well, I think regulatory approval for the MTS sale could go either way, but given the rumors that MTS had enough cash flow to continue operating but not enough to continue building out LTE, fiber and all that fancy stuff, plus the fact that Bell is claiming they will invest $1 billion in Manitoba, plus add 6500 jobs, I figure it will get approved.

I don't even personally care. I'm pretty sure Bell will be aggressive with corporate plans, so for the most part my company will probably continue with the exact same plans. But I think prices overall will go up no matter what.