Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne says he will not permit Quebecor Inc. to acquire Freedom Mobile’s wireless licenses as part of the proposed merger between Rogers and Shaw unless Quebecor agrees to hold onto the wireless airwaves for at least 10 years and commits to bringing down cellphone bills outside of Quebec.
Mr. Champagne said he expects wireless prices in Ontario and Western Canada to be comparable to what Quebecor’s Montreal-based telecom, Videotron Ltd., is currently offering in Quebec. Those prices are, on average, 20 percent lower than wireless prices in the rest of Canada, Mr. Champagne said.
Mr. Champagne made his comments after Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-BT put forward a settlement proposal aimed at resolving the Competition Bureau’s opposition to the Toronto-based telecom’s $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc.
The proposal was tabled ahead of upcoming mediation talks between the parties, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to discuss the proposal publicly.
The mediation talks are scheduled to begin on Thursday. The Competition Bureau is attempting to block the merger of Canada’s two largest cable companies, arguing that the deal would reduce competition in the wireless market and result in higher cellphone bills, poorer service and less choice for consumers.
To address those concerns, Rogers struck a deal last June to sell Shaw’s Freedom Mobile for $2.85-billion to Videotron Ltd., a Montreal-based telecom company owned by Quebecor Inc. Freedom has been credited with reducing wireless prices in recent years.
The settlement proposal that Rogers has tabled would see the Toronto-based telecom sell fiber-optic infrastructure to Videotron in an attempt to resolve the Competition Bureau’s concerns that the Montreal-based company doesn’t own infrastructure outside of Quebec, one of the sources said .
More to come
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