Canada’s telecom executives all shared their take on creating a fourth provider in Canada through Freedom Mobile at the TD Securities Telecom and Media Conference Wednesday.
The wireless provider, currently under Shaw’s ownership, is a significant aspect of the merger as Rogers looks to sell the company to gain regulatory approval.
Numerous parties are reportedly on the table, including telecom providers Québecor and Xplornet. Globalive, which created Wind Mobile before it was sold to Shaw and renamed Freedom Mobile, is also a bidder.
Globalive recently entered a network partnership agreement with Telus to strengthen its bid. Telus’ chief financial officer Doug French said very little about the partnership at the conference, according to Cartt.ca.
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri says at TD telecom conference that Rogers has a good roster of qualified bidders for Freedom Mobile that he thinks will "hit the mark" in terms of what’s required from a remedy standpoint. #RogersShaw #telecom
— Alexandra Posadzki (@alexposadzki) May 25, 2022
“If there’s going to be a remediation partner in this, if this deal gets approved and if there was a network share [agreement] that needs to be signed, we would consider it as a Switzerland-type of approach to whomever,” French said.
“But we have to work through that and decide, as long as the terms were right, but MVNO is going to happen anyway. We just have to make sure we have potentially a more commercial outcome, instead of a government-regulated outcome.”
While the merger gained approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on the broadcast aspect of the merger, federal bodies haven’t given green lights for internet and wireless services.
The Competition Bureau recently filed applications blocking the merger, saying it will decrease competition in Canada.
At the conference, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri says the company has the opportunity to work with the bureau, according to Cartt.ca.
“…We have a good roster, if I can call it that, of qualified bidders that we think are ultimately going to hit the mark in terms of what’s required from a remedy standpoint.”
Source: Cartt.ca
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