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Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating, and foreign ownership restrictions prevented them from raising more. The government decided that Rogers

Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating, and foreign ownership restrictions prevented them from raising more. The government decided that Rogers buying Shaw was a better outcome than Shaw going out of business, which is a position I'm inclined to agree with. I was a Shaw Mobile (not Freedom) customer, and Rogers wanted me to drive 600km (both ways) through the Kootenay mountains in winter to get my new SIM cards. Weird. They mailed my new SIM cards to me.

dmix 2y ago
> Weird. They mailed my new SIM cards to me. Rogers support is pretty notorious country wide, I'm sure it still varies at a localized level. I had a Rogers internet install technician come to my house (for Teksavvy because the gov mandates they run the networks for small operators) and instead of drilling a hole through a wall he opened a window a crack ran the cable through and went home. The girl on the phone couldn't believe my story but I'm sure nothing happened in terms of punishment. This is the outcome of artificial barriers to competition in the name of national benefit. It doesn't matter how absurd your customer story, neither customers nor the upstart businesses have a choice.
voisin 2y ago
> Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating, and foreign ownership restrictions prevented them from raising more. The government decided that Rogers buying Shaw was a better outcome than Shaw going out of business They could also have just eliminated our archaic foreign ownership laws. I am surprised this hasn’t come up in trade negotiations. If we want improved productivity then we desperately need competition. If we don’t get serious about this then we’ll continue to languish economically as a nation.
- cperciva 2y ago
  Right, that would have been my preferred solution. But for unfortunately that's not something the current government is inclined to consider.
lm411 2y ago
They did mail me SIM cards, three times, for three different numbers each time. Their system didn't work when setting them up, and I had two different support operators tell me that my only option was to drive to Cranbrook. In the middle of winter. This is a drive that involves 3 mountain passes.
- cperciva 2y ago
  Ok, that's unfortunate, but clearly a technical problem rather than a policy problem. What would you have them do, keep mailing new SIM cards when they have no idea why they're not working?
Scoundreller 2y ago
> Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating ? They had $10b+ in equity to work with and had ample opportunity to capture ZIRP if they wanted. Anything inhibiting Shaw’s ability to raise capital was its dual class structure where the Shaw family retained control despite owning a minority of the shares.
- cperciva 2y ago
  $10B isn't enough to set up a 5G network. And... I guess it's a good thing they didn't assume ZIRP would be around forever?
  - Scoundreller 2y ago
    Dunno if it was post-Quebecor acquisition, but Freedom Mobile did just that. Not every populated area, just their existing footprint.
    - cperciva 2y ago
      Post acquisition. Part of the agreement was that Quebecor was going to put a lot of money into building new infrastructure.

dmix 2y ago

> Weird. They mailed my new SIM cards to me. Rogers support is pretty notorious country wide, I'm sure it still varies at a localized level. I had a Rogers internet install technician come to my house (for Teksavvy because the gov mandates they run the networks for small operators) and instead of drilling a hole through a wall he opened a window a crack ran the cable through and went home. The girl on the phone couldn't believe my story but I'm sure nothing happened in terms of punishment. This is the outcome of artificial barriers to competition in the name of national benefit. It doesn't matter how absurd your customer story, neither customers nor the upstart businesses have a choice.

voisin 2y ago

> Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating, and foreign ownership restrictions prevented them from raising more. The government decided that Rogers buying Shaw was a better outcome than Shaw going out of business They could also have just eliminated our archaic foreign ownership laws. I am surprised this hasn’t come up in trade negotiations. If we want improved productivity then we desperately need competition. If we don’t get serious about this then we’ll continue to languish economically as a nation.

cperciva 2y ago
Right, that would have been my preferred solution. But for unfortunately that's not something the current government is inclined to consider.

lm411 2y ago

They did mail me SIM cards, three times, for three different numbers each time. Their system didn't work when setting them up, and I had two different support operators tell me that my only option was to drive to Cranbrook. In the middle of winter. This is a drive that involves 3 mountain passes.

cperciva 2y ago
Ok, that's unfortunate, but clearly a technical problem rather than a policy problem. What would you have them do, keep mailing new SIM cards when they have no idea why they're not working?

Scoundreller 2y ago

> Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating ? They had $10b+ in equity to work with and had ample opportunity to capture ZIRP if they wanted. Anything inhibiting Shaw’s ability to raise capital was its dual class structure where the Shaw family retained control despite owning a minority of the shares.

cperciva 2y ago
$10B isn't enough to set up a 5G network. And... I guess it's a good thing they didn't assume ZIRP would be around forever?
- Scoundreller 2y ago
  Dunno if it was post-Quebecor acquisition, but Freedom Mobile did just that. Not every populated area, just their existing footprint.
  - cperciva 2y ago
    Post acquisition. Part of the agreement was that Quebecor was going to put a lot of money into building new infrastructure.