http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/business/bce-to-buy-manitoba-telecom-in-friendly-deal-worth-3-9-billion-1.2883261

WINNIPEG -- BCE Inc. has a friendly deal to buy Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. in a deal they value at $3.9 billion.

The deal will add Manitoba's largest phone, Internet and wireless company to a Montreal-based telecommunication business that stretches across Canada.

The day I quit that place I said 'This company, as it exists today, will not be around in 5 years' That was a year ago. In that time, the newly appointed CEO addressed the way the company was organized and 'siloed' into competing divisions, finally sold the perennial under-performer Allstream, and targeted their bloated ineffective managerial staff with buyouts and retirement packages. Now, wrapped with a neat little bow, this company is finally ready to be run by the big boys, rather than limping along on the failing momentum of a century long monopoly.

The claim is this was never the plan but its difficult to believe that. 

It will be a shame to see MTS swallowed up after 100 years.  But ironically, MTS started when the government bought out Bell's assets in Manitoba back in 1908.  So it comes full circle.

While this should lead to better technology in Manitoba, and perhaps more competitions as Rogers & SHAW will want to fight it out with Bell, hopefully it doesnt result in too many employees getting canned.  Anyone know the Union status of Bell, are they unionized?

Filmon's legacy is now complete.

From the article:

Quote

In a side deal, BCE has agreed in principle to sell about one-third of Manitoba Telecom's post-paid wireless customers as well as one-third of the MTS stores in Manitoba to Vancouver-based Telus Corp. -- a competitor with both companies. The BCE-Telus agreement requires approval from the Competition Bureau. Neither BCE nor Telus put a value on their agreement.

I hope customers will at least get the choice to not go to Telus.

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Anyone know the Union status of Bell, are they unionized?

Yes.

I'd assume the selling off of customers and stores is to preemptively address competitive criticism and ensure a more level playing field.  However, I did read that provinces with only 3 service providers pay significantly more than Manitoba customers.  So its almost assured that prices will go up.  I'd suspect there will be some price wars in the early going as loyal MTS customers feel less inclined to support a Brand that exists in name only and are more susceptible to jumping to a competitor.

I did a quick look at union agreements and Bell seems to pay quite a bit less than MTS does.  Although I dont know if Bell has a series of agreements across the country since pay in one area would not be equal in another. 

I know a big concern will be the pension plan of which many in MTS have a good one.

Always hate seeing a regional entity get swallowed up by one of the big national corporates. Shame.... 

1 minute ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I'd assume the selling off of customers and stores is to preemptively address competitive criticism and ensure a more level playing field.  However, I did read that provinces with only 3 service providers pay significantly more than Manitoba customers.  So its almost assured that prices will go up.  I'd suspect there will be some price wars in the early going as loyal MTS customers feel less inclined to support a Brand that exists in name only and are more susceptible to jumping to a competitor.

I did a quick look at union agreements and Bell seems to pay quite a bit less than MTS does.  Although I dont know if Bell has a series of agreements across the country since pay in one area would not be equal in another. 

I know a big concern will be the pension plan of which many in MTS have a good one.

Man, when I was doing research to help my mom choose her first smart phone, I couldn't get over the incredible pricing you guys have at MTS!! Way better options than we have with The Pirates out west here... 

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

The claim is this was never the plan but its difficult to believe that. 

It will be a shame to see MTS swallowed up after 100 years.  But ironically, MTS started when the government bought out Bell's assets in Manitoba back in 1908.  So it comes full circle.

While this should lead to better technology in Manitoba, and perhaps more competitions as Rogers & SHAW will want to fight it out with Bell, hopefully it doesnt result in too many employees getting canned.  Anyone know the Union status of Bell, are they unionized?

No what it does is lower competition. Did you know that Manitoba has lower rates than most of the country simply because MTS existed as another competitor? My advice to all of you is to prepare your anuses cause you're going to get raped like the rest of the country now. 

Yeah, for me I don't think this is a good thing.  Rates going up are never good, and I found my experience with MTS to be far superior then either of the other 3 (Shaw, Bell, Rogers) in business and residential.

In business, I've dealt with MTS, who were always professional in setting up our Internet access and what not.  Then our company decided that we were going to move to Shaw because we needed a bigger pipe at a cheaper rate.  Shaw for business are the worst.  I don't know who runs this joke of an operation, but they never call first before they come, they just show up.  When they did call the one time it was "hi I'm outside your building, can I come up and get into your server room to install such and such".  No you fuckers...call in advance.

For residential, I dealt with Shaw in the past and they were...ok.  MTS in the past was meh, but in the recent years I found their customer support and what not to be much improved.  I also know someone who works at Shaw and he's just a big goof.  I've also dealt with Bell for TV and they were...ok.  Better then Shaw anyway.  Rogers, on the other hand, are just the biggest bunch of idiots I've EVER SEEN.  I've tried talking to their customer support a couple of times and both times I've wanted to reach through the phone and choke them.  Seriously, the conversation I had with some idiot about why, up until January, I was getting email reminders to pay my Rogers bill, and now I'm getting nothing.  His response was, well you can log into your page and look at your bill.  I said, yeah, but WHY aren't we getting email anymore.  He's like, well email is just a luxury we do for our customers, it's not a guarantee that we do it.  And I said, ok, but WHY DID IT JUST STOP...the guy wouldn't answer my question.  All I wanted to know was why it had all of a sudden stopped.  He just kept giving me the run around.

So in conclusion...I don't like this.

This country already lacks competition and now one region has even less, it's nothing but bad for consumers. 

MTS made major efforts to improve their customer service and has continued to do so.

MTS Centre becomes?

12 minutes ago, IC Khari said:

MTS Centre becomes?

Bell Centre

There have been other arenas with same name no?

Maybe they will give the naming rights to Telus like 1/3rd of the mobile customers. They don't have their name on anything yet.

 

Edited May 2, 20169 yr by FrostyWinnipeg

4 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Bell Centre

There have been other arenas with same name no?

 

I heard it was remaining MTS Centre.  Time will tell.  Deal wont be official til 2017 probably.

I've found that Shaw's home services blow MTS out of the water, in terms of TV and Internet.

Never used MTS for cellphone service.  I was with Telus for years but eventually got fed up with their poor coverage in Manitoba so I switched to Rogers.  Good service and no issues with billing or customer service but I've heard others have had nightmares.  FYI Logan007 I still get Rogers email bills every month 

38 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Bell Centre

There have been other arenas with same name no?

Maybe they will give the naming rights to Telus like 1/3rd of the mobile customers. They don't have their name on anything yet.

 

http://www.centrebell.ca/en/ Canadiens home, highly unlikely we call it that. I would suggest naming it after a Manitoba Company that the NDP has not ruined

7 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I've found that Shaw's home services blow MTS out of the water, in terms of TV and Internet.

Never used MTS for cellphone service.  I was with Telus for years but eventually got fed up with their poor coverage in Manitoba so I switched to Rogers.  Good service and no issues with billing or customer service but I've heard others have had nightmares.  FYI Logan007 I still get Rogers email bills every month 

I have SHAW at home so I cant entirely compare but everything I hear indicates MTS has better quality TV and Internet.  Im considering switching.

9 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I've found that Shaw's home services blow MTS out of the water, in terms of TV and Internet.

Never used MTS for cellphone service.  I was with Telus for years but eventually got fed up with their poor coverage in Manitoba so I switched to Rogers.  Good service and no issues with billing or customer service but I've heard others have had nightmares.  FYI Logan007 I still get Rogers email bills every month 

WTF...geez I hate Rogers.  I hope that company burns in hell.

For years, Canada as a whole has been paying some the highest rates for mobile services than anywhere in the world. Among the G8 we were near last in most service and package related categories while our major service providers frequently ranked among the top 3 most profitable. More competition is supposed to be a good thing for consumers because it is supposed to drive innovation and keep costs in check. But that doesn't seem to be happening. It's almost as though federal regulation was sorely lacking for many years, go figure....

Meanwhile in Manitoba... Lucky for MTS, they had so many legacy service customers and DSL early adopters bundled up (or 'ensnared' as they would say) in their services that when the first real competition showed up (like in the mid 2000's in the form of Shaw home phone service) MTS was able to stagnate the market price and make it less palatable for intruding competitors, for a time. The flip side is that compared to AB and BC in the West and Ont/QC to the east, Manitoba was - in terms of maximum earning potential - the smallest of potatoes to begin with. So the big boys had no problem playing the same game and were very aggressive with their pricing to try and claw market share away from MTS bit by bit.

It kept costs down for consumers here, no doubt. But it did come at the cost of service. Little things here and there, like how MTS wriggled free from CRTC regulation of their 611 repair services. Probably 99% of us didn't notice but rural elderly folks sure didn't appreciate having their copper wire fall to bits and wait sometimes weeks before anyone had to come around to look at it. It also bred Manitoban's to be even worse customers. We're already bargain hunting coupon cutters, now we expect perpetual promotional pricing or we'll go to the other guys, only to be back in 6 months when their promo is up. I expect in time prices will go up, data and usage caps will be enforced, and the allure of promo-jumping will diminish when option A looks virtually the same as option B like it does most other places.

I'm reminded of the Canadian Politics thread where people were celebrating the fall of the NDP and the impending slashes to perceived redundancies and inefficiencies. That's probably a lot like how this feels for me, in a way.

On the bright side for the employees who must be on an emotional roller coaster today... shareholders (a great many of whom are employees) are getting bought out at $40/share. It's been a long time since MBT traded anywhere near that. Cha-ching!

I'm still a loyal MTS customer though. I've always been happy with their service. The high speed internet is the bomb. 25 down 5 up, I've never noticed traffic shaping or throttling when I torrent. I can be gaming, torrenting and streaming in HD and it's all pretty seamless.

Doesn't help that literally every online identity I use is associated with my @mts.net account. I knew I should have stuck with slipknotmanson666@hotmail.com*

 

*not a real thing, please don't email this person

Edited May 2, 20169 yr by MOBomberFan
speeling

5 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I have SHAW at home so I cant entirely compare but everything I hear indicates MTS has better quality TV and Internet.  Im considering switching.

I haven't had MTS since about 2013 so they may have improved but when I did use MTS, there were issues all the time with outages and service quality in general.

I've never had any trouble at all with Shaw.  The closest thing I had to an issue was when I got a PVR box from them.  I was talking to customer service in BC I guess, and had everything all worked out.  So I went to the Shaw office to pick up my box and they had no idea what I was talking about.  Long story short they ended up giving me a PVR box absolutely free (yes I own it) because they were so hopelessly disorganized.

So far I've heard:

The arena's name will not change for the foreseeable future, and 'Bell MTS' Western HQ will be based downtown and will employ around 6,900 people. The ratio of current MTS employees to Bell employees? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

15 minutes ago, MOBomberFan said:

So far I've heard:

The arena's name will not change for the foreseeable future, and 'Bell MTS' Western HQ will be based downtown and will employ around 6,900 people. The ratio of current MTS employees to Bell employees? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That 6900 includes 2700 MTS employees. 

True North Centre or Investors Group Arena (to go with the Field)? 

21 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I haven't had MTS since about 2013 so they may have improved but when I did use MTS, there were issues all the time with outages and service quality in general.

I've never had any trouble at all with Shaw.  The closest thing I had to an issue was when I got a PVR box from them.  I was talking to customer service in BC I guess, and had everything all worked out.  So I went to the Shaw office to pick up my box and they had no idea what I was talking about.  Long story short they ended up giving me a PVR box absolutely free (yes I own it) because they were so hopelessly disorganized.

I know MTS has been cognizant of their poor service reputation and have worked hard to be better.  Im with SHAW probably because they were very good to us when we moved into our current home.  The line was degraded and we had many issues but they ran a line off of a neighbor and gave us a large discount for over a year until a new line was installed.  I appreciate that and have trouble switching.

However, Im scheduled to move homes sometime this year and will almost assuredly switch for a reason Im not comfortable divulging (but you can figure out lol).