[lm411]

Yep.

Allowing Rogers to purchase Shaw was absurd.

The Commissioner of Competition was very strongly opposed to the merger, the court ruled against him, and Canadians had to pay Rogers $13 million CAD because he opposed it.

I was a Shaw Mobile (not Freedom) customer, and Rogers wanted me to drive 600km (both ways) through the Kootenay mountains in winter to get my new SIM cards. I told them where to go.

Rogers is junk and Canada is an oligarchy.

[voisin]

Small world - I live in the Kootenays. I am guessing you are in Nelson only because it seems to be 600km from everything :-)

[lm411]

Close enough though a bit more in the boonies.

They wanted me to drive to the Rogers store in Cranbrook or Kelowna.

[grecy]

Huh, very small world. Me too :)

[nikolajan]

What made Canada special died decades ago, were it not for the strict visa process I would be living in the states (Vermont) right now, with a significantly higher salary (as a principal engineer), a lower income tax, healthier housing market, lower cost of living, and better quality of life.

[lm411]

Funny thing, I lived outside of Canada for many years though I am Canadian born and raised. I moved my family back for a "better quality of life".

Jokes on me. ;)

I love the land and the people, but, the country itself is a mess. We have already planned our exit.

[jszymborski]

What makes Canada strong is its people, whom I love very much.

I wish our gov't served us better, and I try my best to enact change, but it's a fool who thinks any country is without its faults.

[ThePowerOfFuet]

>were it not for the strict visa process I would be living in the states (Vermont) right now, with a significantly higher salary (as a principal engineer), a lower income tax, healthier housing market, lower cost of living, and better quality of life.

Western Europe has all those things, is actually welcoming, has sane healthcare, and you don't even need to own a gun!

[snapplebobapple]

Canada used to say our healthcare was better but that hasnt been true for atleast a decade. Its more choose your version of crappy. Do you want to oay with your life savings (usa) or your life (canada)

[cperciva]

Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating, and foreign ownership restrictions prevented them from raising more. The government decided that Rogers buying Shaw was a better outcome than Shaw going out of business, which is a position I'm inclined to agree with.

I was a Shaw Mobile (not Freedom) customer, and Rogers wanted me to drive 600km (both ways) through the Kootenay mountains in winter to get my new SIM cards.

Weird. They mailed my new SIM cards to me.

[Scoundreller]

> Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating

?

They had $10b+ in equity to work with and had ample opportunity to capture ZIRP if they wanted.

Anything inhibiting Shaw’s ability to raise capital was its dual class structure where the Shaw family retained control despite owning a minority of the shares.

[voisin]

> Shaw didn't have enough capital to continue operating, and foreign ownership restrictions prevented them from raising more. The government decided that Rogers buying Shaw was a better outcome than Shaw going out of business

They could also have just eliminated our archaic foreign ownership laws. I am surprised this hasn’t come up in trade negotiations. If we want improved productivity then we desperately need competition. If we don’t get serious about this then we’ll continue to languish economically as a nation.

[dmix]

> Weird. They mailed my new SIM cards to me.

Rogers support is pretty notorious country wide, I'm sure it still varies at a localized level.

I had a Rogers internet install technician come to my house (for Teksavvy because the gov mandates they run the networks for small operators) and instead of drilling a hole through a wall he opened a window a crack ran the cable through and went home. The girl on the phone couldn't believe my story but I'm sure nothing happened in terms of punishment.

This is the outcome of artificial barriers to competition in the name of national benefit. It doesn't matter how absurd your customer story, neither customers nor the upstart businesses have a choice.

[lm411]

They did mail me SIM cards, three times, for three different numbers each time.

Their system didn't work when setting them up, and I had two different support operators tell me that my only option was to drive to Cranbrook. In the middle of winter. This is a drive that involves 3 mountain passes.