Montreal Tech Watch

Telus in merger talks with Bell

By Heri Jun 21st 2007 in Mobile

bell

Telus confirmed today that they were indeed in merger talks with Montreal-based BCE, who announced it yesterday. If successful, the two companies would have a combined market cap of more than $53 billion, with more than 20 million customers. This would also mean that Canadians will have to chose between Bell vs. Rogers when purchasing a mobile service. Vancouver Star reports on what Telus would do concerning competition and free market, by not stopping a third player entering the market for instance (!!!).

telus

Telus, headquartered in Vancouver, had $8.8 billion revenues in 2006 and 10.8 million customer including 5.1 m mobile subscribers, 4.5 m phone network lines and 1.1 million Internet subscribers. Now, I am not really sure what to think of it. Shareholders seem to be delighted. I would have liked to hear something like: “this would enable us to upgrade our network and offer less scandalous data plans for canadians” but Telus’s representative talked about increased business and revenues, which for me, meant one thing: more expensive data plans for everyone, as competition decreases.

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Comments

  • Alex June 21, 2007

    That would be VERY bad for consumers.

    In Europe (UK), we were lucky to have MANY companies to choose from (Orange, Vodafone, Virgin, o2, T-Mobile…) This forced prices to be competitive and rates were extremely low (pre-paid and monthly).

    One thing for sure, those of us with GSM phones are better off than the ones stuck with CDMA.

    Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

  • Matthew Currie June 21, 2007

    It would be bad for competition, prices wouldn’t go down, and jobs would be leaving the country. Telus has been taking jobs away from Canadians for two years now…

    http://itschironboy.blogspot.com/2007/06/telus-and-charm-offensive.html

  • Alex June 24, 2007

    Come to think of it… I think Virgin Mobile in Canada is a great competitor to Bell and Telus.

    I just wish they offered their GSM service here too.

  • Heri June 24, 2007

    alex: virgin is a virtual operator. they use Bell’s network. there was also amp’d mobile, but their company filed for bankrupcy in the US.

    on your first comment, i agree. there should be more networks here. they are doing it very well for cable, phone and the internet, the only thing there is a problem in quebec (and in canada) is the mobile phone. canada is behind the US, which is behind europe, which is years away from Japan and Asia.

  • Smith John Doe August 27, 2007

    Still working for telus.

    BAD does not even begin to describe it. TELUS is shipping jobs to MANILA faster than U can say; Eh, DA!

    Here is the TELUS equation. $$$$$ Save 1500.00 Per month on a Canadian. PISS’d off clients = 40.00 per month that says SCR*W – U.

    @ 400 MANILA TECH support REPS + = They can lose MAny Canadian clients per month PER REP and LauGh to the BANK.

    HENCE they can offer Free hotspots till they come and get market share. Then offer sweet deal on PLEASE be our customer. Once Hooked >>> It will cost U the equivalent of one MANILA ReP’s salary ( Month ) to get out oF the contract.

    Compitition means, selling yourself a pipe dream without LUBE. But Please enjoy. Mama said that there is always a cost. Just ask why before U buy…. ????????

  • Raymundo Hunt December 16, 2007

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