Rogers, Telus step up with data discounts aimed at Shaw

TELECOM

TORONTO • Canada’s major wireless players appear to be treating Shaw Communications Inc.’ s mobile business as a more serious threat after its latest play to expand its network, a move some researchers see as a welcome, but preliminary sign, of increased competition in the national arena.

Both Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. launched wireless promotions specifically targeting Shaw’s Freedom Mobile after it acquired spectrum from Quebecor Inc. in a $430 million deal in early June, Barclays analyst Phillip Huang wrote in a research note.

As it stands, Freedom of- fers more data at better prices than its competitors, albeit on a far less robust network. But after Shaw bought the spectrum required for better reception and committed to spending $350 million to deploy it in the next fiscal year, competitors responded.

Rogers aimed to retain customers threatening to leave its flanker brand Fido for Freedom by offering 4 gigabytes of data for $45 per month, while Telus’ Public Mobile enticed existing Freedom customers with 4 GB for $ 40 monthly, Huang noted. Freedom offers 4 GB for $40 per month, whereas the main brands Rogers and Telus charge about $ 100 for the same amount of data.

IDC Canada mobility researcher Lawrence Surtees said it’s not surprising to see Freedom targeted given that Shaw articulated the goal of capturing 25 per cent of the mobile market share, a “huge hurdle” from the 2 per cent it had last year. “It can’t be business as usual to do that,” Surtees said. “It makes sense that the flanker brands would want to respond and make things a little difficult.”

The big question is how Shaw will respond with pricing or data given its network is not yet up to par with the Big Three of Rogers, Telus and BCE Inc., he said. That will take far longer than one quarter of aggressive promotions to play out.

Even though the Freedom-specific promotions only target select customers, Carleton University communication professor Dwayne Winseck saw it as a positive for the industry that is dominated by the Big Three.

“This is definitely a welcome sign that there is some competition,” he said, with the caveat that the deal only applies at the margin of the market thus far.

Deals that i nclude i ncreased data caps — the cheaper plans have typically offered only 1 GB or 2 GB of data — call into question the refrain that carriers offer low data caps because of spectrum scarcity, Winseck said.

“If the spectrum scarcity argument is taking a hit here from Shaw’s entry into the market and its acquisition of the spectrum… it starts to chisel away at a claim that’s kept data caps low and prices high in Canada.”

Shaw is scheduled to report results for the three months ending May 31 on Wednesday, so this competitive move won’t be reflected in its upcoming financials.

But promotional activity was higher across the wireless industry as a whole in June when compared to last year, Barclays’ Huang noted, adding the discounts could hurt margins this quarter. Still, he wrote the promotions specifically targeting Freedom could impact its nearterm subscriber results.

RBC analyst Drew McReynolds also cautioned investors to keep expectations for Shaw in check since it’s still early days for its wireless business. McReynolds wrote in a client note he expects volatility in Shaw’s results until it’s further along in deploying its LTE network, though he factored in “meaningful improvement” for 2018.