How will the sale lead to more expensive Internet and wireless?
While consumers, advocates, organizations, businesses, and more are crying out for lower prices and more competition, this deal threatens to move Canada in the opposite direction.
It’s economics 101: When companies have to compete for the same customers, it creates incentive to undercut each other — leading to downward pressure on prices across the board. More competition = lower prices!4
Right now, Canada has a competition problem when it comes to Internet and cell phone data. We have just four major telecommunication companies offering wireless services, sometimes known as the “Big Four”: Bell, Rogers, Telus, and Shaw. Everyone uses these companies’ networks, including Big Telecom’s “flanker” brands like Koodoo and Virgin Mobile.
The Rogers-Shaw deal will reduce the competition between those four companies by at least a whopping 25% — or much more, in local markets where there will now be only one major provider! That loss of competition will drive prices way up, and consumers will have significantly less choice about where they get their Internet and wireless services — especially in Western Canada.5
We saw this exact scenario play out in Manitoba in 2017, when Bell bought out regional provider MTS. After the Competition Bureau allowed the sale, Bell jacked up prices.6 Rogers is taking out huge loans to finance this deal with every intention of following Bell’s suit.7
But we can stop them. If enough of us speak out, we can convince the government and the Competition Bureau that Canadians cannot afford less choice and higher prices when it comes to Internet and wireless services. Sign the petition: Tell the government and Competition Bureau to stop the buy NOW!