Discussions

None of the newer "national" carriers that launched back in 2008/2009ish are independent anymore. Wind is owned by Shaw and changes are going to occur soon, Public Mobile is owned by Telus and that brand no longer exists and Rogers owns Mobilicity, who just announced today that they will be dissolving the brand completely in favour for the "Chatr" brand.. which was introduced to combat against Wind/Mobilicity in the first place. Their plans will not be grandfathered.. but they plan on offering "similar" plans for those customers.  
 
What I see happening to MTS if the proposal goes through - There's going to be some very angry Telus customers unless if the Telus network is merged into Bell's (as Bell/Telus share a national network), and Bell will gradually phase out unlimited data. In order to get an upgrade - you will have to take a comparable plan, which I believe will be a 15GB plan plus talk and text for $70ish at the beginning, prices WILL get worse. The plan prices are getting worse right now as it is.

Of the MTS contracts and stores to Telus. So, what if you don't want to be a Telus customer? Personally, I will be availing the competition board of my opinion, I suggest anyone with concerns do so as well. Maybe they will listen, maybe they won''t......

Looks like the agerments are there till 2031. https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf10815.html

I SURE HOPE the new owners will take better care of the wireless cellular network than MTS has!  
 
I travel a lot of rural Manitoba for work and depend on cellular data and voice services to complete my work. It can be a very frustrating experience.  
 
I've noticed many areas with very poor signal strength, and others with poor or no service indoors in small towns. There's a huge swath of area centered around Rock lake (North of Cartwright) and another massive cellular wasteland centered around Beulah/Miniota that confirm my belief that we've been getting our money's worth for our cheapest wireless plans in Canada.  
MTS seemed to have been wasting tons of money deploying towers inside towns that already had useable indoor and mobile coverage from a nearby tower (Russell, Oak Lake, Carberry) yet ignore those huge un-covered areas and towns like Cartwright, Ninette, Baldur.  
 
As a former cellular industry contractor-technician, I have also been unable to ignore the poor performance of several key rural towers. Hamitoa facing North, and Shoal Lake immidiately comes to mind. It's clear that MTS (and by extension Rogers due to the shared infrastructure in-place) have been ignoring the RF performance of the wireless network outside of city-limits for quite some time. Perhaps this was evidence that a buyout was imminent, as companies tend to let things go towards the end of an ownership period.  
 
Bell, or whomever ends up owning the wireless network) will be hearing from me at the first available opportunity to make sure that these concerns are heard, so that hopefully rural Manitobans will benefit from the new managment.  
 
I'll be keeping a very interested eye on how any developments of the MTS buyout affect the wireless coverage and performance.

Anyone who is upset about poor rural coverage in the way of TV, internet and cellular as provided by MTS had better not get their hopes up that Bell will do better. If service to those areas is poor because it's not profitable for MTS, you had better believe that Bell will ignore it as well.

You may be right. Yet since once Bell gets MTS,Rogers and MTS sharing towers would quickly come to a end.  
 
New Tower locations may be a answer. LTE may be their nay bottom standard ? It may be 2 years plus before Bell gives Rogers the boot.  
 
5g is just down the road. Rogers may find new equipment is cheaper/less towers needed? Bell bought/buying a legacy company. Contracts/dated equipment and probably tower location that suck in some cases. Lots of baggage.  
 
Rogers/TELUS could be a answer to some rural issues.

I really do not expect that Bell will improve the infrastructure significantly. MTS on average has had higher capital investment than Bell has. In other words, MTS spends more of their money on upgrades than Bell does.  
 
https://dwmw.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/why-bells-bid-to-buy-mts-is-bad-news/

Adam said "At this point it's technically "if" rather than "when" since shareholders and federal regulators have to approve. They're saying they expect everything to close late this year or early next year if everything goes as expected. Until that point it's business as usual at all MTS stores including all local ones. "

Is why I got mail last week already that already relabelled the MTS store at the Corral Centre as a "Bell" store.  
 
Everything I am reading says what you are saying - that it is not a done deal yet.  
 
Are they that cocky that they "know" it will happen, or are they jumping the gun?

I can for sure confirm that no change has happened to the MTS in the Corral

In truth, I hope I get dumped into Telus (assuming conformation). MTS has been great, but after having to eat the cost of an s5 due to voided warentee on purchase, thats where im going. Note that I am not specifying even a city of purchase, just the end result.  
 
I would have gone anyway. Knowing a bit about bell, and the simmularities to certain others.  
 
Edited by Simonwalcal, 2016-05-12 16:02:32

BJ Hersak said "I can for sure confirm that no change has happened to the MTS in the Corral "

But not entirely.  
 
I have attached a photo of a mailer I received from the Bell store in Shoppers Mall, not Corral.  
 
I don't have any MTS services so I really didn't pay that much attention to it. I did not even realize there still was a store in the mall.

foxtrot11 said "    BJ Hersak said "I can for sure confirm that no change has happened to the MTS in the Corral " But not entirely.     I have attached a photo of a mailer I received from the Bell store in Shoppers Mall, not Corral.     I don't have any MTS services so I really didn't pay that much attention to it. I did not even realize there still was a store in the mall. "

Was the mailer from mts or bell store. There has been a Bell store in the Shoppers mall already for quite a while now. Or did it say former mts store?  
I'm thinking you received mail from current, already established Bell store in mall, that's not tied to Mts at this time yet. There is a Bell store and an Mts store in the Shoppers Mall, separate stores.  
 
Edited by Cheezies, 2016-05-13 14:01:22

Doug said "You may be right. Yet since once Bell gets MTS,Rogers and MTS sharing towers would quickly come to a end.     New Tower locations may be a answer. LTE may be their nay bottom standard ? It may be 2 years plus before Bell gives Rogers the boot.     5g is just down the road. Rogers may find new equipment is cheaper/less towers needed? Bell bought/buying a legacy company. Contracts/dated equipment and probably tower location that suck in some cases. Lots of baggage.     Rogers/TELUS could be a answer to some rural issues. "

As ultraguy pointed out in another post, MTS has been spending significantly more of their revenue on infrastructure than Bell has been. As I mentioned earlier, even though Bell has promised $1B in infrastructure spending in the first 5 years, MTS has been spending an average of $200m per year or... wait for it... $1B per 5 years - the exact amount Bell made seem so generous. That amount hasn't gotten rural services up to par yet, so the Bell spending probably won't do the trick any faster than MTS would make it happen.  
 
Where I have a problem is what happens to the Rogers cell customers when Bell cuts off access to their towers? And what happens to rural MTS customers when they lose access to Rogers towers?  
 
Then there's the whole cell phone rates are cheaper in MB and SK think because of the fourth player in the game. That goes away too - not just for Rogers customers, but for everyone. Rogers, Bell and Telus are pretty well fixing prices across the country and the only place they really have to compete is in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.  
 
This deal is not a good thing. It destroys the ONE thing the Harper Government (TM) got right - there needs to be a fourth player in the telecommunications game in Canada. We have it here now. Why allow it to go to three?

You can express your opinion on the sale to the Competition Bureau of Canada at this link:  
http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/frm-eng/GH%C3%89T-83KK9Y#form  
Let your voice be heard. Probably won't do any good but it can't hurt!

One more article.  
 
https://openmedia.org/en/im-mts-customer-and-my-bill-about-go

Most people on here have no idea how much data they even use. Most people I see barely go over a Gb since wifi is everywhere.  
 
You got people paying 140 a month for all unlimited and with a national carrier they would pay 60 if they used less than 2gb. And a national is supposed to check how much u actually use and not just put you on the highest plan lol.  
 
For people that used 30gb a month it will suck but there are ways around it.  
 
MTS is 800 million in debt with competitors chipping away at them every year. Shareholders will sell because the deal will only get worse the longer they wait.

The deal now has regulatory approval, to officially close next month:  
http://m.nasdaq.com/article/bell-obtains-regulatory-approvals-to-complete-mts-deal-to-update-guidance-20170215-00634

In a letter dated February 6, 2017 and we received it on February 10, 2017 states  
"As you are likely aware, Bell Canada and MTS have announced that we have reached an agreement whereby Bell will purchase MTS. Following the expected completion of the sale, MTS will begin operating as Bell MTS and Bell will be making significant improvements to broadband and wireless networks, products and services in the province of Manitoba.  
It goes on to say our account will be moved from MTS to a numbered company and then mid march to another numbered company.  
 
Sounds like March 17th is the takeover date.

A little more at the link below including a mention that Bell MTS "will maintain current MTS wireless price plans for at least 12 months after the closing of the acquisition", which was one main question I had about all of this:  
http://mobilesyrup.com/2017/02/15/bell-mts-acquisition-approval-march-17/

Quote from the CBC article.."The competition watchdog pointed out that earlier this month Bell was offering a 5GB plan in Ontario for $105, while the same plan was going for $60 in Manitoba."

The infrastructure aspect of this intrests me. Particularly as Rogers ties into this.  
 
Im guessing that the current MTS/Rogers network will remain for a few years at least due to leasing agreements and equipment (the backlog of devices is programmed for MTS, not Belus). After that, makes me curious though.  
 
I guess the main question is, will a big chunk of current Rogers home footprint become extended coverage?

Today's the day, MTS is now Bell MTS in what would seem to be a true landscape shifter in this province:  
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bce-completes-acquisition-manitoba-telecom-120000624.html  
 
It's been said that existing MTS wireless plans will be honoured for at least a year. Will be interesting to note differences in how the products are marketed and sold over time, what this means long-term for stores like the local MTS stores, the Bell store, The Source and even retailers like Best Buy. What kind of difference in presence will Telus and Xplornet have locally as time goes on as a result of their tie-ins to the acquisition? As asked above, what are any long term effects on Rogers?  
 
Edited by Adam, 2017-03-17 07:48:02

The tower agreement expires this year, quite convenient for Bell..  
 
Hence why they wont touch cell phone plans etc for 1 year.

Not a very optimistic line from Global's article from today:  
"Although the company is promising better service, in a media release sent Friday, Bell said “there can be no assurance” that the benefits expected from the MTS takeover, will happen."

I see the deal between MTS and Bell is finished according to Saturdays' Sun.  
 
A 3.9 billion deal. Many people made money. I know some financial transaction are taxed but not all.  
 
In the end Bell bought a company that does i:nclude more than people. Contracts/Hardware cars and work trucks and probably buildings.  
 
Just how much of that 3.9 billion went to us in PST or the Feds in GST . Somehow I think diddly squat. Does someone have a educated guess?  
 
Edited by Doug, 2017-03-19 17:21:02

There is many thoughts on why they sold other than shareholder profit.  
 
The province by the way did not own them. It was private but with many Manitoba shareholders.  
 
I think as a stand alone company with limited amount of users were getting frozen out of the big picture when it comes to data sharing and such.  
 
Small fish in a big pond. Their (MTS) subscriber base may not be profit worthy enough for what comes next.  
 
The one billion(promise)to be spent by Bell over and above the MTSs' purchase price in Manitoba upgrades is a sign.  
 
That billion promised by Bell to regulatory officials is not chump change. There is a real cost to the behind the scenes cell phone business.  
 
I think they sold before the next generation system upgrades. Yep Small fish in a big pond.

Doug said "I see the deal between MTS and Bell is finished according to Saturdays' Sun.     A 3.9 billion deal. Many people made money. I know some financial transaction are taxed but not all.     In the end Bell bought a company that does i:nclude more than people. Contracts/Hardware cars and work trucks and probably buildings.     Just how much of that 3.9 billion went to us in PST or the Feds in GST . Somehow I think diddly squat. Does someone have a educated guess?     Edited by Doug, 2017-03-19 17:21:02"

I buy something that's 8% PST, that's 312,000,000, no one else gets to skimp on the sales tax when they buy something in MB why would Bell get a pass? $312,000,000 would pave a lot of roads and build a lot of schools.

I don't think I pay GST or PST when purchasing shares of a company. If I don't then Bell likely doesn't either.

There is no PST or GST on a share sale. No matter how much it's for.  
 
The government gets its tax from the capital gain realized by the shareholders.

HankTank said "There is no PST or GST on a share sale. No matter how much it's for.     The government gets its tax from the capital gain realized by the shareholders. "

And the capital gain topic is a whole new can of worms depending on what comes out of Ottawa this week....