'The chickens are coming home to roost' after $26-billion acquisition of Shaw by Rogers received final approval earlier this year. In July, the CRTC set the “mobile virtual network operator” (MVNO) rates Quebecor will pay Rogers to use Rogers’ cellular network. The regulator chose Quebecor’s rate in final-offer arbitration. With the rates set, Quebecor was expected to start offering cellphone service in more areas across the country.
Rogers is now fighting those rates, having filed an appeal of the CRTC’s decision in the Federal Court of Appeal on Aug. 23.
Rogers had assured both the government and Quebecor the rate the CRTC set in arbitration “would be binding and final. It would set the rate once and for all.”
“Now that the transaction has taken place and the necessary approvals have been obtained, Rogers is patently acting in bad faith by refusing to accept the decision,”