Rogers to buy Shaw

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm still waiting for the amazing plaza and restored facade that Encana was going to build when they tore down those heritage buildings for The Bow.

Ovintiv: "Never heard of 'em."

[dammage79]

Elons going to bankrupt these chump monopolies here anyways.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Elons going to bankrupt these chump monopolies here anyways.

Yea not any time soon. In Starlinks own timelines, by end of 2026 the constellation is only going to support 500k customers in North America simultaneously.

They will not be a realistic substitute for traditional wireline networks cable and fiber networks.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm still waiting for the amazing plaza and restored facade that Encana was going to build when they tore down those heritage buildings for The Bow.

How's the Westwinds Campus doing these days?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Yea not any time soon. In Starlinks own timelines, by end of 2026 the constellation is only going to support 500k customers in North America simultaneously.

They will not be a realistic substitute for traditional wireline networks cable and fiber networks.

True.

But we are already starting to see some more competition with pricing.

The big 3 all offer some kind of 'rural' internet plan, and those plans will have to become more competitive if they want to compete with Starlink.

[Fuzz]

Before merger:

"One of the key pluses of this is that competition is going up, especially in the west, and prices are going to come down."

Today:

While a Rogers spokesperson said many customers will see a price hike under $7, the increases could be as high as $9 per month, depending on the customer's plan or bundle with their carrier. The hikes apply only to customers who are not on contract.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rog...073376?cmp=rss


Could somebody bring me my fainting couch, it appears a corporation may have lied to everyone to make more money from us, and it worked!

[Ducay]

I disagree - wireless costs have come down massively over the last 12 months or so. How much is due to Shaw/Rogers merger, who knows, but I know it is easy to get a on-market plan for $35-40 these days with 20+GB of data. Plans all started at $50 monthly even just a year or so ago. So not only has the data amounts gone up (expected as data proliferates) but cost has also gone down, which is the better indicator of market health & competition.

Freedom (Shaw/Rogers) even have a 2 year 50GB plan for Canada and US usage for $34! Hard to argue there hasn't been a massive drop in prices & increase in what you're getting.

[Buff]

The cost of home tv and internet hasn't dropped at all. That's where the prices are definitely rising. My Shaw TV/Internet/Phone bundle came due in November. They called me in August offering me a great rate to avoid the price bump. I think their great rate was a bump of nearly $40/month and they said my price afterwards would have been an extra $80/month.... I wound up waiting until a week before contract expiration and I'm only paying $5-6 more per month.

[cSpooge]

Originally Posted by Ducay

I disagree - wireless costs have come down massively over the last 12 months or so. How much is due to Shaw/Rogers merger, who knows, but I know it is easy to get a on-market plan for $35-40 these days with 20+GB of data. Plans all started at $50 monthly even just a year or so ago. So not only has the data amounts gone up (expected as data proliferates) but cost has also gone down, which is the better indicator of market health & competition.

Freedom (Shaw/Rogers) even have a 2 year 50GB plan for Canada and US usage for $34! Hard to argue there hasn't been a massive drop in prices & increase in what you're getting.

Freedom is owned by Videotron now. It was part of conditions of the sale.

[fotze2]

My POS phone is acting up. iPhone 11. I used to upgrade all the time but haven't for years. The plans and everything are all different now. Currently at Freedom for $55/mo for 50 GB so I guess I can drop to $34 right now?

Is it best to just buy the phone outright?

Is the lightning cable not a thing anymore? When the hell did that happen? Shows that new phones don't use the lightning input?

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Is the lightning cable not a thing anymore? When the hell did that happen? Shows that new phones don't use the lightning input?

The European Union basically forced Apple into adopting the USB-C standard. So moving forward, that's what it'll be. I'm not sure which models have it already, but I'm still milking my iPhone Xs for the time being, so the new gadgets aren't on my radar at the moment.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

The European Union basically forced Apple into adopting the USB-C standard. So moving forward, that's what it'll be. I'm not sure which models have it already, but I'm still milking my iPhone Xs for the time being, so the new gadgets aren't on my radar at the moment.

I've probably bought 30 of those lightning cables, they should be charged for war crimes. Doesn't help that my kids use them to waterski behind.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by fotze2

My POS phone is acting up. iPhone 11. I used to upgrade all the time but haven't for years. The plans and everything are all different now. Currently at Freedom for $55/mo for 50 GB so I guess I can drop to $34 right now?

Is it best to just buy the phone outright?

Is the lightning cable not a thing anymore? When the hell did that happen? Shows that new phones don't use the lightning input?

I specifically waited until the iPhone 15 family came out so I could upgrade my iPhone 11 Pro and ditch the Lightning cables in favour of USB-C.

[curves2000]

The proper people in government and in the regulatory bodies were properly paid off in order for this buyout to occur. This had zero business getting approved given what is at stake. Let's not forget that these companies had a handshake agreement amongst the families for not competing with each other on landline and internet connection for the most part from decades ago. This is exactly why you didn't see Rogers selling internet and cable packages out west and Shaw with virtually no significant presence in central and eastern Canada. Doubtful those were "business decisions"

Some people within the regulatory bodies tried hard to not allow this deal to go through but ultimately the government finally ok'd the deal, logically that's what they were paid to do. I think Quebecor will make a decent effort to expand and grow Freedom Mobile but if the marketspace growth and capital requirements face too many headwinds, they will sell FM to Rogers, Telus or Bell.

The same lack of competition is happening with the airlines now. A strong understanding that Westjet competes strongly in the west with Calgary as a main hub and Air Canada looking after the east.

Westjet has "suspended" flights between Toronto and Montreal, Canada's two largest cities. It's not an accurate comparison, but could anybody imagine a major US airline not flying LA to NY?

We allow this level of garbage in Canada with these protected industries who are allowed to thrive with very little competition. It's one of the reasons why Canada's economy is so centered on a few basic things like natural resource extraction, trade with USA and some other stable things like banking/insurance. It's not like there is a mountain of Canadian companies competing globally and winning. A huge portion of them are sheltered and it shows.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Ducay

I disagree - wireless costs have come down massively over the last 12 months or so. How much is due to Shaw/Rogers merger, who knows, but I know it is easy to get a on-market plan for $35-40 these days with 20+GB of data. Plans all started at $50 monthly even just a year or so ago. So not only has the data amounts gone up (expected as data proliferates) but cost has also gone down, which is the better indicator of market health & competition.

Freedom (Shaw/Rogers) even have a 2 year 50GB plan for Canada and US usage for $34! Hard to argue there hasn't been a massive drop in prices & increase in what you're getting.

They are back to gouging people for financing phones. The $35 dollar deals are all being your own phones but disappear if you need financing. Then you have $60 minimums even on phones with no additional subsidy. Then you have them adding the bring your phone back plans which effectively is a way to get you to sign up for locked in contracts with high penalties that don’t prorate down by month.

So some of the competition on bring your own device has is working and lowering price however it’s another it’s expensive to be poor item that has been created.

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by GGG

They are back to gouging people for financing phones. The $35 dollar deals are all being your own phones but disappear if you need financing. Then you have $60 minimums even on phones with no additional subsidy. Then you have them adding the bring your phone back plans which effectively is a way to get you to sign up for locked in contracts with high penalties that don’t prorate down by month.

So some of the competition on bring your own device has is working and lowering price however it’s another it’s expensive to be poor item that has been created.

Bang on! Let's not forget the classic connection and sign up fee's. I am a 12 year client of Freedom Mobile and if I want to take advantage of any of these deals, it's a $45 fee for what ends up being a privilege to sign a 2 year contract.

Freedom, like a lot of carriers used to give an actual discount on new phones when signing up for contracts. A very healthy discount at that. Now with these tab's, trade up and other financing gimmicks, all you can sometimes get is $150 a year off the hottest phones.

Sure some of the stuff a lot of people don't buy can be had for cheap but the iPhone and top Samsung's have shockingly low device subsidies.

I am still old school and think it's always cheaper in the long run to have your own device and get the best plan possible. You can keep your phone as long as you want and the savings from the plan add up quickly and last for in essences for as long as possible.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Bang on! Let's not forget the classic connection and sign up fee's. I am a 12 year client of Freedom Mobile and if I want to take advantage of any of these deals, it's a $45 fee for what ends up being a privilege to sign a 2 year contract.

Freedom, like a lot of carriers used to give an actual discount on new phones when signing up for contracts. A very healthy discount at that. Now with these tab's, trade up and other financing gimmicks, all you can sometimes get is $150 a year off the hottest phones.

Sure some of the stuff a lot of people don't buy can be had for cheap but the iPhone and top Samsung's have shockingly low device subsidies.

I am still old school and think it's always cheaper in the long run to have your own device and get the best plan possible. You can keep your phone as long as you want and the savings from the plan add up quickly and last for in essences for as long as possible.

If this is how it is, sounds like a good thing.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Westjet has "suspended" flights between Toronto and Montreal, Canada's two largest cities. It's not an accurate comparison, but could anybody imagine a major US airline not flying LA to NY?

Off topic of the thread but want to point this out.


WestJet was losing money on the Toronto and Montreal route, to suspend that route IS a business decision, especially when you can reallocate resources to where you can increase profit.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Bang on! Let's not forget the classic connection and sign up fee's. I am a 12 year client of Freedom Mobile and if I want to take advantage of any of these deals, it's a $45 fee for what ends up being a privilege to sign a 2 year contract.

Freedom, like a lot of carriers used to give an actual discount on new phones when signing up for contracts. A very healthy discount at that. Now with these tab's, trade up and other financing gimmicks, all you can sometimes get is $150 a year off the hottest phones.

Sure some of the stuff a lot of people don't buy can be had for cheap but the iPhone and top Samsung's have shockingly low device subsidies.

I am still old school and think it's always cheaper in the long run to have your own device and get the best plan possible. You can keep your phone as long as you want and the savings from the plan add up quickly and last for in essences for as long as possible.

Outside of freedom you can avoid the $45 fees by signing up online.

[RedMan12]

I had Shaw internet and cell phones. My plans all got price increases in 2024 after transferring to Rogers. Is it true all prices were supposed to locked in for 5 years after Rogers bought out Shaw?