After yesterday’s news that Rogers is offering buyout packages to nearly half its workforce, analysts are now saying it could kick off a broader wave of cuts across Canada’s telecom industry.
For those who missed it, Rogers confirmed it’s offering voluntary departure and retirement packages to nearly half of its employees. Bloomberg put that number at around 10,000 out of a total workforce of roughly 25,000.
The company’s spokesperson Zac Carreiro summed it up plainly yesterday, saying, “We are taking steps to adjust our cost structure to reflect the business realities of the current environment.”
But of course not everyone qualifies. On-air talent, Sportsnet staff, union members, and employees at MLSE and the Toronto Blue Jays are all excluded, which number around 3,000.
Desjardins analyst Jerome Dubreuil called it one of the biggest telecom workforce reductions in recent memory and said there’s “room for more cost cutting” at other large carriers too, speaking to CTV News. He also connected it directly to Rogers’ decision to slash capital spending by 30 percent this year, which they blamed on regulatory and competitive pressure.
Erik Bohlin, a telecom economics professor at Ivey Business School, told CTV News the cuts reflect something bigger happening across the whole industry. AI is handling more network management work than ever, traditional revenue streams are shrinking, and competition is eating into margins. “For Rogers in particular, this might be kind of a waking-up moment after the Rogers-Shaw merger that they have to compete in new ways,” he said.
Rogers has been working to clean up its balance sheet for a while. Last year it sold a $7-billion stake in its wireless infrastructure to Blackstone and now it is eyeing outside investors for a piece of its sports portfolio, which includes the Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays, valued at over $25 billion.
Next week, Bell and Telus will be announcing their first quarter earnings. We’ll have to wait and see what comes from those numbers and if we can expect any similar cost-cutting measures in the form of jobs.
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The gov’t should follow suit..lol
As a tax payer , I sure hope they do, as long as it stays open-source and not handcuffed to a large IT corporation
CEO always trim from the bottom up using corporate math and hand gestures to convince everyone that self service and 2 hour wait times are normal industry standards, while senior staff get raises. Predator class being predators
All three are rotten at the top
That’s what suits don’t understand , AI is great at writing code, sure , but it’s also great at replacing management , it really comes down to can you describe
What you want? , you need to know what you want from AI in the first place, so yes for SME AI is great , even for the jack of all trade , but if your only skill is to organise others (productive) skills then you’re out of lick
Market capitalism was invented in the 17th century to protect and grow the wealth of a colonial empire aristocracy , and you perpetuate that by voting in a system that was designed to protect market capitalism. Stockholm syndrome much ?
Canadians wanted cheaper cell phone plans. So Trudeau made them open up their networks to MVNOs, then open fiber networks to wholesale. Why build a network for someone else to use? Then cut labor to compete. This is what Canadians asked for. How many times has this site been negative about plan rates?
Sure, spent 32 years in the industry, and it’s always been about moving one quanta from one place to the other cheaper then the next shop and cheaper then yesterday, AI brings production cost to ~0., I know I use it in my indépendant production, there’s no more money to do at laying copper or even fibre , and it’s not about Trudeau it’s about the Canadian telcos oligarchy , ask me why I’m a starlink consumer from day 1 and why I wish for starlink voice and data for my cell phone without having to go true on of these 3 *itches network
hello crtc.. this is because of ur repressive & punitive regulatory framework..
“We are taking steps to adjust our cost structure to reflect the business realities of the current environment.”
That’s just a word salad, it doesn’t mean anything.
If means we don’t need you no more to run business , we got AI to do it at near zero cost.at least compared to some naked ape.
Juste a start , I retired after 32 years as a sysadmin/netadmin few years back, took my decision the day I saw ChatGPT write code faster then I could read it, not even mentioning interpret /understand it, that day I knew exactly what was going true the head of my management , so fired them in a preventive strike and now run infrastructures I rent to large AI projects, better and more stable pay, less drama , no suits to manage.
Governments around the world need to embrace universal basic income…and we need to put limits on wealth….developing a capitalism that isn’t unbounded. Capitalism, as it exists today, falls on its face when 90% of the population don’t have employment as we define it today. AI (and robotics) are going to eliminate most jobs. There’s automated “fast food restaurant in a box” offerings being wheeled out in the US today. Only a matter of time until the big chains maximize profits by embracing those. And if it makes fiscal sense to replay a fry cook, how about the mechanic at your local car dealership? The robots can do the manual labour now….and AI is VERY good at analysis. Insurance companies are already using it to put estimators out of work.
Rogers has been a crap show since Tony S. took over.
I hope Fatty and Fmeerelli are let go!!!!