Just what we need here in Canada...less choice in the marketplace, and one of the largest corporations in Canada getting bigger. I'm honestly sick of corporate takeovers and whatever else.
Wonder what will become of the FIDO service once the company's fully taken over?
I find this merely typical of ol' Ted Rogers...the bastard doesn't know a thing about hard work, it seems. A quick look at Rogers' history will show a long line of mergers and buy outs.
I don't know about anyone else here, but I tend to get very nervous when it comes to companies like Rogers, who has their fingers in so many pots: cable TV providers, Internet, cellphones, a sports network, a video rental chain, radio stations (often two per city) and numerous magazines that are out on the shelves, such Macleans, Chatelaine, and others.
Bell Globemedia's not much better, with the ownership of CTV, TSN, ESPN Classic Canada, OLN, a cellphone service, local phone service for half the country, a satellite service, and the Globe and Mail newspaper.
Sorry for the diatrabe, but I get really upset when I read about corporate mergers and stuff like that.
If you think this is constricting choice in the marketplace, just be glad that the original deal fell through. Telus had been trying to take Fido over for months before their deal finally fell through, and would have basically assured themselves a near-total monopoly on cell phone service in western Canada had it succeeded. In fact, here in Saskatchewan the situation is even more bizarre, as crown corporation Sasktel controls all the digital service outside out of the two major centers, and Telus is forced to piggyback off them in order to provide even analog service in the sticks. The bad blood between them is so deep that Telus was forced to agree never to sell a pay-and-talk phone in this province as a result of the negotiations, which some people think is one of the main reasons they wanted to acquire Fido.
Either way, I just ditched Rogers and switched to Fido a little while ago, which is proving to be a fruitless decision in the grand scheme of things...
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Bell Globemedia's not much better, with the ownership of CTV, TSN, ESPN Classic Canada, OLN, a cellphone service, local phone service for half the country, a satellite service, and the Globe and Mail newspaper.
How dare you ignore dial and DSL Internet service as well! I may not even be employed if not for that!
And Bell's not that bad. They're forever doing upgrades and improving upon the service they have, whereas by constrast to Rogers - their current backbone infrastructure is some of the shoddiest work I've ever seen. Cogeco runs a smooth cable network, and keeps it well maintained, so they provide proof it CAN be done, but Rogers is too damn lazy to do anything about it on their network.
I won't even get started on the cellular phone business, and I'll be the FIRST to admit that Bell is up to their armpits in problems there right now as well, expecially with the current billing issues ongoing. I'm glad I haven't ever made the silly decision to purchase a cell phone, because between the non-stop contract issues I hear coming out from Rogers, and the fact you couldn't reach a Mobility Rep if you were in the call centre itself, my head would have exploded long ago.
WHen Rogers released the TotalPhone package, I ordered it...and was very much unimpressed, so I called them to cancel it.
Only to find out that their call centre was snowed in. It was located in Halifax.
Aparently, that location was the only that dealt with the prepaid and Totalphone service...and they didn't have any back up service in case they had to shut down.
That's bad. Really, really bad.
Because of that, my account was extended for another day, I had a months' use taken out of my account, and they wouldn't refund me because they weren't open...although it was a regular business day.
Any letters of complaint went unanswered. I hate Rogers.
Oh yeah...and TotalPhone didn't really last too long, didn't it? I guess a good marketing scheme can't cover up shoddy service and terrible customer service.
My Rogers phone works great everywhere except within about 100 feet of my house. But Fido works well in that Rogers dead zone. As long as the buyout includes repeater sharing I wholeheartedly support it.
I am sorry- that picture looks like a bad fake- I like nightcrawler- but the current quasi-priest version best. I would rather see the likes of Gambit or Beast, though....