Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor announced late Friday evening the companies have agreed to sell Freedom Mobile to the Quebec-based telecom, after numerous reports the latter was in the running to acquire the wireless unit.
“The proposed divestiture of Freedom Mobile to Quebecor will ensure the presence and viability of a strong fourth wireless carrier in Canada,” explained Rogers. The company says Quebecor “brings an undeniable operational and competitive track record, as well as significant financial resources.”
According to all companies involved, they note the sale of Freedom Mobile to Quebecor should address concerns about the Rogers-Shaw deal raised by the Commissioner of Competition and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, regarding wireless competition.
Quebecor says it will agree to purchase Freedom Mobile for $2.85 billion to expand its wireless offerings nationwide, including a 5G network. The deal would include Freedom Mobile’s wireless and internet customers, along with its infrastructure, spectrum and retail stores. It also includes transport services and roaming from Shaw and Rogers.
“Our agreement with Quebecor to divest Freedom is a critical step towards completing our proposed merger with Shaw. We strongly believe the divestiture will meet the Government of Canada’s objective of a strong and sustainable fourth wireless services provider,” said Tony Staffieri, President and CEO of Rogers, in a statement. “This agreement between proven cable and wireless companies will ensure the continuation of a highly competitive market with robust future investments in Canada’s world class networks. We look forward to securing the outstanding regulatory approvals for our merger with Shaw so that we can deliver significant long-term benefits to Canadian consumers, businesses and the economy.”
“This is a truly Canadian-made solution that will benefit all Canadians by delivering increased competition and choice, the next generation of telecommunications services and enabling the transformative benefits of a combined Rogers and Shaw. We look forward to completing the Shaw Transaction which would make Rogers a truly national telecommunications provider,” said Edward Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Communications, on Friday evening.
“This is a turning point for the Canadian wireless market,” proclaimed Pierre Karl Péladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor. “Quebecor’s Videotron subsidiary is the strong 4th player who, coupled with Freedom’s solid footprint in Ontario and Western Canada, can deliver concrete benefits for all Canadians. We have always believed that for there to be healthy competition in wireless services only a player with a proven track record can successfully enter the market. This is a value-added transaction for all consumers and the Canadian economy. After fifteen years of growth in the Quebec wireless market, we have demonstrated our expertise, our ability to innovate and our financial strength. Now we are taking another step to bring the opportunities our customers already enjoy to consumers across Canada.”
“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone in our bold and transformative journey to join together with Rogers,” said Brad Shaw, Executive Chairman and CEO of Shaw. “Since Shaw entered the wireless business in 2016, we have made significant strides towards changing the Canadian wireless landscape. We made a promise to Canadians that we would increase choice and affordability and I’m proud to say we delivered on that promise. Today’s announcement ensures that Freedom Mobile will remain a strong competitor.”
This deal is conditional upon the Competition Act plus approval from ISED of the Rogers-Shaw deal.
The Competition Bureau earlier today reiterated it will oppose the Rogers-Shaw deal. The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (ISED) has yet to decide on supporting the merger.
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More details on this please.
Videotron and Rogers have a nationwide, reciprocal roaming agreement right now, right? Where Rogers users roam in Quebec with no additional charges and videotron customers do the same in the rest of Canada? If so, freedom+videotron become very interesting.
Agreed…
This was the most desirable outcome in my opinion.
I suppose I had some pie in the sky ideas of the government purchasing Freedom and selling it as a core network to MVNOs…
Realistically though, a Quebecor acquisition will satisfy many goals…
Can still dream of the government forcing full MVNO access at possibly regulated rates.
Ya, not sure I’m on board with that…
Why? Similar model worked ok with landline ISP access. Full MVNOs work great in the US and elsewhere. No reason it wouldn’t work well here, other than the cartel chooses to block them.
Canadians think wireless MVNOs work great in USA and Europe.
Americans and Europeans don’t seem to think it’s all that great at all.
It just doesn’t make sense to me to allow other companies access to the network the true carriers invest and build for… just to undercut them on price.
I get the reasoning for MVNOs the way we currently have it. Like Videotron or Freedom.
Even Bell and Telus.
I just don’t see the logic of it.
I don’t really look at videotron or freedom as MVNOs. They are just small carriers.
Our MVNO model in Canada is brands like speak easy or PC or chatr, which are really just pre-paid subbrands and not actual MVNOs.
In the US (and Europe) the MVNO model works well because it allows the carriers to sell excess capacity using a free sales force and customers get more price choice.
As for undercutting them on infra they paid for, well, that’s the trade off for being granted monopolies and hegemonies and decades of protection. Seems like it should be a very fair trade.
It’s quite a good agreement.. when it works. VTR customers are roaming on Robbers (unlimited) and then on Bhellus when there is no coverage for Red ( with caveats).
Will that stay in place? If it does it kind of puts VTR in a dependent position and Robbers in control.
What happens to the unused spectrum that Shaw was sitting on? Is that part of the sale to videotron as well?
I thought they stopped new build the moment they were put up for sale.
Or am I mistaken and it was fully deployed?
Everything would be transferred to Quebecor under this deal, including spectrum.
I don’t believe that there is any un-utilized spectrum from Shaw.
You may be thinking of their 5G network, which would have used the same spectrum currently deployed for LTE.
It’s also possible that they haven’t deployed ALL their 600mhz spectrum (AKA band 71), but they certainly have in some places. They could have been intending to set it aside for 5G only because Rogers killed Freedom.
What happens to the unused spectrum that Shaw was sitting on? Is that part of the sale to videotron as well?
I thought they stopped new build the moment they were put up for sale.
Or am I mistaken and it was fully deployed?
As A Freedom customer it looks like eventually I will get access to 5G and also more coverage across Canada including Quebec.
This is probably the best option for competition with regards to Freedom Mobile, although we can probably expect some price increases after the deal. The Rogers brief doesn’t mention and price guarantees, so it’s not really certain.
Hmm so will Videotron be expanding outside of Quebec? This is a bit of a sore spot after Videotron sued rogers about 6 months ago…
It sure looks like it! Videotron spent about half a billion dollars buying a huge chunk of 3500 MHz 5G spectrum outside of Quebec.
“Now that it holds 175 blocks of spectrum (for an average depth of 32 MHz) in the 3500 MHz band in four Canadian provinces outside Québec, Quebecor plans to roll out its mobile telephone service in some urban and rural areas in the rest of Canada.”
https://www .newswire. ca /news-releases/conclusion-of-3500-mhz-spectrum-auction-quebecor-and-videotron-take-another-step-towards-expansion-outside-quebec-812427486.html
What is says to me is more fare hikes for tv, home phone and internet ( more than the usual fare hikes in march every year)…
That’s probably a given regardless of what happens.
On paper this looks like good news…reality is what bites us in the behind.
Let’s see if it gets through (heck Bill 96 did…) and then brace for impact.
FWIW I’m a Videotron customer paying 40$/mth for 15GB/mth plus 100GB buffer per year (max 20GB /mth).
Likely never going to happen again.