Shaw Goes Wireless

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Shaw Goes Wireless

Postby jon » Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:02 am

Shaw plans to enter wireless market in 2011
By Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald
April 9, 2010 11:37 AM

CALGARY - Shaw Communications will be launching wireless services next year, chief executive Jim Shaw said Friday, ending speculation about when the Calgary-based cable and internet provider would be entering the highly competitive market.

The announcement was made at the same time Shaw posted second quarter results that slid 11 per cent to $139 million on non-operating items such as debt retirement costs.

“We are advancing our strategy to offer a competitive wireless offering and are now planning for an initial launch in late 2011,” Shaw said in a statement. “Accordingly, we are accelerating our wireless capital spend and expect to invest approximately $100 million in fiscal 2010. The investment in this new business will primarily be funded by cash on hand.”

Shaw bought $190 million of wireless spectrum during the federal auction in 2008, launched to increase competition in Canada, after years of denying interest in entering the industry.

However, executives remained coy Friday about where it would be launching the service and when, saying it was competitive information for the time being.

The company did say it would maintain its 100 per cent ownership of the wireless unit.

On the operations side, digital and internet and digital phone customer numbers rose during the quarter, boosting second quarter revenues by 11 per cent to $929 million.

Funds from operations rose eight per cent to $335 million.

ref. - http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/S ... story.html
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Re: Shaw Goes Wireless

Postby jon » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:49 am

If you have visited Shaw's web site lately, you may have noticed a lot of ads for jobs in the Wireless arena. Mostly technical.

Not sure where else they are advertising, but it sounds to me like they are finally starting to move forward with plans to actually use all (or some of) the Wireless spectrum they bought in 2008.

Based on how long things normally take, and factoring in how long it took Shaw to get landline telephone service going, 2011 may see a "launch", but full coverage of even their large metro markets is not likely until 2012.

Of course, the unanswered question is: what will Shaw actually be offering? Business Only and/or Data Only services was the original speculation.
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Re: Shaw Goes Wireless

Postby Mike Cleaver » Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:19 pm

Whatever "services" they're going to offer, you can bet the prices will be the same as those charged by Bhell, Telus, Rogers, et al.
They'll help to maintain the highest priced wireless services in the developed world.
Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
Engineering, News, Voice work and Consulting
Vancouver, BC, Canada

54 years experience at some of Canada's Premier Broadcasting Stations
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Re: Shaw Goes Wireless

Postby jon » Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:08 pm

I recently noticed that TELUS offers a "Radio" plan which offers unlimited wireless airtime when listening to a defined set of XM satellite radio channels. Unfortunately, the web page describing their offering was so old that most of the XM channels mentioned don't exist anymore, thanks to the Sirius/XM merger.

But, it did get me thinking that Shaw would make quite a splash in the wireless world were they to concentrate on specialty niches, with the added incentive being that many could include media they own directly. Or indirectly through Corus.

They could also "get it right" with some of the innovative, but poorly executed, initiatives of others. Like the aforementioned TELUS Radio. Instead of offering you XM channels they have selected, why not let you pick a specified number of XM/Sirius channels? Instead of 15, 30 or 50 channels they have selected, at different price points, why not 3, 5, or 10 channels you choose?

Another example is unlimited wireless data to your car at an affordable price.

My point is that there are so many opportunities for a company like Shaw, which owns so much media or rights to media, to make good money on wireless delivery at prices that would be money losers for their competitors (who would pay a lot more for the same media).

In addition, as Videotron demonstrated here in Edmonton, being first in the broadband Internet market (circa 1995) can, unless you really flub things, mean you are the market leader "forever after". Which means that starting out at a money-losing price point can be worth the losses if technology will soon reduce your costs to make you profitable.
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Re: Shaw Goes Wireless

Postby Paul P » Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:27 pm

Mike Cleaver wrote:Whatever "services" they're going to offer, you can bet the prices will be the same as those charged by Bhell, Telus, Rogers, et al.
They'll help to maintain the highest priced wireless services in the developed world.


I've come to the conclusion that if these big companies change the way they do business, Cleaver would be rendered speechless.
Being nice is my resolve - in 2012
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