The Canadian government has mandated that there be at least at least four wireless carriers in every province. This is to provide Canadians with “more choice and competition.”
Over the last few years, however, consolidation has occurred. Shaw purchased Wind Mobile and rebranded it to Freedom Mobile, Rogers bought Mobilicity, and Telus acquired Public Mobile. In addition, Rogers launched Chatr Wireless and Bell unveiled Lucky Mobile.
There are also rumours that Cogeco and Rogers will form a partnership
During an interview with BNN, Bloomberg’s Amanda Lang asked Phil Lind, vice chairman of Rogers Communications, whether there will be more wireless consolidation in Canada. Lind stated, with a smile, “there could be… we are going to have to consolidate. It’s inevitable. We can put it off, the government can put it off, but eventually [we’ll consolidate].”
“Especially in wireless, this is scale business. The United States has two great, strong carriers and two weak ones, because even they can’t make it happen,” said Lind. “So how can we, in this country, with one-tenth of the population, make four or five carriers work in Canada?”
Rogers has 10,810,000 subscribers (9,045,000 postpaid and 1,765,000 prepaid subscribers) and plans to roll out its 5G network in 2020.
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