Telecom consultant says Rogers-Shaw merger, inflation, enough to spark forbearance reassessment

A Toronto-based telecom and broadcasting consultant is arguing to the CRTC that Rogers Communications Inc.’s pending acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc., and recent inflation, are “signiﬁcant developments in the marketplace” that should trigger the commission to consider whether its general policy of forbearance remains applicable. John Philip Roman made the arguments as in an April 19 reply to a Part 1 proceeding in which he asked the CRTC to review its determinations regarding forbearance, and to conduct a reassessment every five years thereafter. “The Rogers/Shaw merger would create a signiﬁcant increase in concentration of ownership, with the resultant reduction in competitive rivalry on both price and service quality. For the commission to ignore this massive merger and its impact on the marketplace, especially given how vigorously Bell fought against the Broadcast part of the merger, would be an unreasonable failure to take highly relevant considerations into account,” Roman wrote in his reply. Roman argued a review would be in line with the commission’s 2021 mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) decision in which it states that it regulatory certainty is important for the industry and “absent any signiﬁcant developments in the marketplace” the commission does not intend to conduct a future review of the access service, or of its mobile wireless service regulatory framework. Roman argued that Freedom Mobile, if divested, would lack the marketing and ﬁnances of a “sufﬁciently sized market participant” to be able to provide meaningful competition to the other brands. “We are likely to see market conditions similar to when the Wind brand was struggling to survive. That does not even begin to explore the home internet market. In essence, this is a merger of the second largest telecommunications/data provider with the fourth largest. How can the Commission not view this as “a signiﬁcant development in the marketplace?,” Roman wrote in his reply. Roman turned to the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications’ (FRPC) intervention which argued that costs to consumers have not been decreasing even in pre-inﬂationary times, and he added that with current inflation “there will be less money available to pay for the services currently subject to forbearance.” “Simply by holding the hearing the Commission can show it is aware of and responsive to the current economic realities Canadians face,” he said. Telus Corp., Rogers, and BCE Inc. each argued to the commission that there has been no decrease to competition, therefore, a review would be inappropriate. Several incumbents also argued to the CRTC that there were new offerings in the marketplace, such as Rogers' expansion of its Connected for Success affordable internet program, which would lower bills. Roman replied that the Part 1 was submitted before several of those announcements were issued and argued that competition has not increased, and the issue of data overages has not been addressed, despite the new plans for low income Canadians. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified John Philip Roman as a lawyer. The article has been updated to reflect that he is a consultant.

Telecom consultant says Rogers-Shaw merger, inflation, enough to spark forbearance reassessment

News | April 21, 2022

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Telecom consultant says Rogers-Shaw merger, inflation, enough to spark forbearance reassessment

News | April 21, 2022

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