~ CBC
Rogers is set to take over Shaw after the federal government approved the merger with conditions which it insists will make the deal good for consumers. But some are skeptical the merger will actually be good for their wallets.
he federal government has approved the multibillion-dollar merger of telecom companies Rogers and Shaw, but with conditions that Ottawa insists will make the deal good for consumers.
François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry, said at a news conference Friday that the government has approved the transaction first proposed in 2021.
As part of the deal, the vast majority of Shaw’s wireless business, Freedom Mobile, will be sold to Quebec-based Videotron. While Freedom Mobile and its more than two million customers will move over to Videotron, Rogers will maintain a much smaller part of Shaw’s wireless business, known as Shaw Mobile, which operates mostly in Alberta and B.C.
Those Shaw Mobile customers will be added to Rogers’ more than 10 million wireless customers across all of its brands, which includes Fido, Chatr and others.
The approval comes with 21 conditions that the government says are “legally enforceable,” including that Videotron will start to offer plans that are comparable to those currently available in Quebec and they can’t sell the wireless assets to anyone else for at least a decade…Read More!!!