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12-18-2015, 02:56 PM
By Pete Evans, CBC News
$1.6B deal offers promise of more competition in cellular services
http://i.cbc.ca/1.3098955.1433357589!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/smartphone-wireless-cellphone-light-display.jpg
Shaw's deal to buy Wind could finally create a fourth national wireless company in Canada, a figure that some experts say is the sweet spot for competition that drives down prices. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)
Canada's wireless market was shaken up this week by an offer from Shaw to buy Wind Mobile, a deal that could change the landscape in terms of what consumers will pay and get in their cellphone plans.
Calgary-based Shaw is snapping up Wind and its pool of just under a million cellphone customers for $1.6 billion. Wind, formed almost exactly six years ago, operates mainly in big cities in Alberta, B.C. and Ontario, offering prepaid and postpaid wireless services to about 940,000 customers.
That's a drop in the bucket compared with the so-called Big Three — Rogers, Bell and Telus — who together control more than 95 per cent of the market, with more than eight million wireless customers each.
The deal, if approved by regulators, would allow Shaw' to move into that territory and form Canada's fourth national wireless carrier, something the federal government and consumer watchdogs have long said they are in favour of.
Canadians pay some of the highest prices in the world for cellular services, something critics have blamed on overly heavy-handed regulation and a lack of competition. Following a high-profile spectrum auction in 2009, Wind Mobile and other entrants like Mobilicity and Public Mobile aimed to shake up an industry that had long dissatisfied many Canadians.
In the intervening six years, however, Wind has eked out a tiny foothold in the industry, while other upstarts failed to even grab a toehold, with Public and Mobilicity both being swallowed up by Telus.
Linking up with Shaw, however, changes the game both for customers and the company itself. Calling the deal "transformational" for the company that bears his name, CEO Brad Shaw says he expects it to be finalized sometime in late 2016.
So existing customers shouldn't expect any changes — either to their service, or to prices — before that.
$1.6B deal offers promise of more competition in cellular services
http://i.cbc.ca/1.3098955.1433357589!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/smartphone-wireless-cellphone-light-display.jpg
Shaw's deal to buy Wind could finally create a fourth national wireless company in Canada, a figure that some experts say is the sweet spot for competition that drives down prices. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)
Canada's wireless market was shaken up this week by an offer from Shaw to buy Wind Mobile, a deal that could change the landscape in terms of what consumers will pay and get in their cellphone plans.
Calgary-based Shaw is snapping up Wind and its pool of just under a million cellphone customers for $1.6 billion. Wind, formed almost exactly six years ago, operates mainly in big cities in Alberta, B.C. and Ontario, offering prepaid and postpaid wireless services to about 940,000 customers.
That's a drop in the bucket compared with the so-called Big Three — Rogers, Bell and Telus — who together control more than 95 per cent of the market, with more than eight million wireless customers each.
The deal, if approved by regulators, would allow Shaw' to move into that territory and form Canada's fourth national wireless carrier, something the federal government and consumer watchdogs have long said they are in favour of.
Canadians pay some of the highest prices in the world for cellular services, something critics have blamed on overly heavy-handed regulation and a lack of competition. Following a high-profile spectrum auction in 2009, Wind Mobile and other entrants like Mobilicity and Public Mobile aimed to shake up an industry that had long dissatisfied many Canadians.
In the intervening six years, however, Wind has eked out a tiny foothold in the industry, while other upstarts failed to even grab a toehold, with Public and Mobilicity both being swallowed up by Telus.
Linking up with Shaw, however, changes the game both for customers and the company itself. Calling the deal "transformational" for the company that bears his name, CEO Brad Shaw says he expects it to be finalized sometime in late 2016.
So existing customers shouldn't expect any changes — either to their service, or to prices — before that.