Shaw-Rogers deal would decrease competition, even with Freedom divestiture to Quebecor: analyst

Even if the Competition Bureau forces Shaw Communications Inc. to spin off its wireless Freedom Mobile brand as part of the bureau's approval of the deal with Rogers Communications Inc., the level of competition will still diminish in the Canadian wireless market, according to one analyst. Speaking at the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) annual ISP Summit Tuesday, ScotiaBank analyst Jeff Fan said that while most attention has centered on Quebecor Inc. as the most likely buyer of Freedom, it lacks the wireline assets Shaw used to make Freedom an effective competitor in the wireless market. "If it is going to be a Quebecor led entity, you will likely see competition still diminish in my view," Fan said in response to a question from Android Central reporter Shruti Shekar. "Because Freedom, with Shaw as its backer, had a lot of access to capital, including fixed line assets and the cable business that they could sell wireless into, we don't have that in the case of Quebecor," Fan added. "So they're going to have to build that from the ground up, so to speak, and find a value proposition." Also Tuesday, the Competition Bureau put out a fresh request for information in its review of the proposed merger. Specifically, the bureau is asking "all those with relevant information" to share it by Oct. 29 on the issues of mobile wireless services to consumers, consumer and small business internet services, fibre transport services, the supply of programming to television providers , and the provision of relay distribution services broadcast distribution undertakings. Quebecor has been widely understood as the front-runner to purchase any divested wireless assets from Shaw, though the company's recent spending on set-aside spectrum in the 3500 MHz auction has come under fire in the form of a court challenge from BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. Fan also said that independent wholesale-based internet service providers (ISPs) could become viable competitors via fixed wireless, even in an era of fiber. "Depending on the type of bandwidth you can provide, the download speed and throughput you can provide, fixed wireless could turn out to be a valid competitive offering in the market like it is today," Fan said. At an ISP Summit panel later in the day, senior director of product management for Cambium Networks Bruce Collins said that "we’re seeing some traditional wireless internet service providers, as well as some carriers, adopt that technology where they might have used fibre in the past." "They can now deliver gigabit per second over wireless connectivity and it really opens up a whole new set of applications based on that. We’re seeing wireless internet service providers deploying that for both urban and suburban and rural areas,” Collins said. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca, and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

Shaw-Rogers deal would decrease competition, even with Freedom divestiture to Quebecor: analyst

News | September 28, 2021

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Shaw-Rogers deal would decrease competition, even with Freedom divestiture to Quebecor: analyst

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