It was known that if Rogers new discount brand “Chatr” launched, new entrant Mobilicity would proceed with legal action. Mobilicity believes that Rogers launching Chatr is an attempt “to destroy our success” and goes against the “Abuse of Dominant Position” in the Competition Act.
I just had a phone conversation with Stewart Lyons, COO of Mobilicity. I wasn’t allowed to put the audio clip online but here’s what he had this to say about Chatr:
“We served them with a letter last week that basically said if it launches in a manner as was revealed then we would take some certain legal action. Among those things were civil litigation, complaint to the competition tribunal, complaint to the regulatory authorities… and since it did launch in that manner we will be pursuing those avenues.”
A couple years ago the when the government announced the Wireless Spectrum Auction, the Industry Minister stated “Our government’s intentions are clear: to achieve lower prices, better service and more choice for consumers and business. We believe in relying on market forces to the maximum extent feasible because competition benefits consumers, and consumers benefit most when markets are as competitive as they can be.”
In addition, today Lyons said “we do this obviously for our company, but we also do this for consumers. At the end of the day prices have only started to go down. Things like Chatr only started launching when the new entrants came on the scene. Without long term sustained competition for the big 3, I dare say that I don’t believe affordability and value will remain in Canada’s wireless sector for the consumer. If we’re not around the consumer won’t win in the long term… they will just raise prices eventually.”
