Speaking to investors in a post-earnings conference call, Quebecor CEO Robert Depatie says Verizon coming to Canada would “catastrophic” for regional carriers and change the outcome of the current auction rules, joining incumbent carriers in publicly speaking out against Verizon, according to the Globe and Mail.
He also told the Montreal Gazette Verizon could limit its coverage for urban areas as well:
“Similarly, nothing prevents Verizon from limiting its deployment to urban areas, leaving a large percentage of the Canadian population behind in terms of service level and access to the latest technologies.”
The worry for Depatie is the four blocks of spectrum could be shared amongst three players only, with newer entrants getting shut out. He went on to add Verizon could also limit its network deployment in urban areas as well.
Quebecor’s wireless division, Videotron competes with incumbents in Quebec and earlier this year announced it would team up with Rogers to build and share LTE networks in the province and Ottawa region.
The company’s total revenue for the quarter rose 0.8% to $1.09 billion, while its telecom business under the Videotron brand, increased 5% to $678 million.
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no sympathy here for quebecor
last spectrum auction they paid more for all available in quebec than wind paid for canada, which is why wind isnt available in the province
Cry me a rivière.
D’accord.
Magnifique!
dawwww look at the unecessary effort 🙂
Quebecor: Quebec’s Rogers.
thats going a bit far, to videotron’s credit, they have impeccable customer service in both languages… its actually stunning
example: i received a letter in the mail that my internet’s upload speed was trippled, at no extra cost.: the catch…
i had to call videotron and schedule a time for a technician to come change my modem, at no extra cost (for service or hardware)
when calling, they told me they could do it tomorrow and asked what time of the day worked for me, told them 2 ish, they said okay and that i would receive a call 15 minutes the next day before the tech arrives
next day, 1:45pm rolls around, i get a call that the tech is on his way
2:00, hes at the door
my friends in ontario and in the states are floored and they kinda dont believe me
so yes, when it comes to telecom, they are dickey just like the rest of them
but as a company rogers doesnt come anywhere near the quality that is dealing with videotron
tl;dr: NO 9 TO 5 WINDOW
COMPETE. Keep your customers happy. Attract new ones even in the light of new competition. NO PROBLEM. Of course, they don’t see it that way, do they?
If a Starbucks opens next to a Tim Hortons, do you hear Tim Hortons crying foul to the government and writing “Open letters” to citizens blubbering about what could go wrong and all the apparent problems with such…or do they suck it up and COMPETE?
No, Tim just opens up more stores, on the opposite corner. I want companies to battle it out for my dollar, fight tooth and nail for my business. That is healthy capitalism, real capitalism not this monopoly shit.
In response to Oshawapilot: When you’ve been at the trough for as long as the Pig 3 (and the little piglets too like Quebecor) why wouldn’t you want things to remain status quo? Anyways……I wonder what kind of backroom/under the table deal was struck between the Pig 3 and Quebecor? There must have been some kind of deal/offer/guarantee between one of, if not all of the Pig 3 in order to have enlisted additional voices.That’s my theory anyways.