|
by Barbara Shecter
The National Post
Dec 6, 2006
|
|
Ted Rogers talked yesterday about becoming a truly national player as developing technology gives him the ability to offer a larger suite of communication services across the country.
During an annual conference held in New York by investment bank UBS, Mr. Rogers said he would like to expand Rogers Communication's Inc.'s fledgling Internet phone business, or VoIP, as well as high-speed Internet beyond the cable "footprint" of pipes running through Ontario and Quebec.
"We're developing technology to offer high-speed Internet and [home] phone across the country," Mr. Rogers told analysts and institutional investors at the conference at the Grand Hyatt hotel.
Mr. Rogers, the chief executive of Rogers, did not provide a timeline for the rollout of the national services, which would join the company's wireless phone service that is available across the country.
"Rogers has a relationship with nearly 40% of all Canadian households (versus Bell with about 65%) so there is room to grow to achieve national scale," said Kaan Yigit, president of Solutions Research Group.
"There's definitely better returns [with] scale and increasing reach is a positive, of course, on many counts," he said.
Analysts said Mr. Rogers is eyeing making improvements to a wireless technology that allowed Rogers and Bell Canada to expand the reach of their respective high-speed Internet services this summer through Inukshuk Internet. The joint venture targets remote and rural parts of the country.
Cable technology has traditionally divided the country, with Shaw Communications Inc. owning the "pipes" in the West, Rogers in central Canada, and Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron ltee in Quebec. Cogeco is the smallest of the big four players, with cable systems in Ontario, Quebec and Portugal.
A Toronto-based stock analyst, who spoke on condition that he not be named, said a national rollout of home phone and high-speed Internet would put Rogers in fiercer competition with Telus Corp. and other telecom players that are using Internet technology to get into cable's stronghold of TV distribution.
But he said a likely target for Rogers will be companies in the same business such as Cogeco, which Rogers has been stalking for years.
"Rogers has owned about 20% of Cogeco for a few years, and makes few secrets about their desire to own the whole thing," said the analyst. Rogers "might decide to go after Cogeco with disruptive low pricing. Rogers might not make money on the customers it wins, but the goal would be to make life miserable for Cogeco so that they agree to sell out."
Mr. Rogers was asked about the Cogeco investment at yesterday's conference in New York, and said he remains interested in the neighbouring cable network despite Cogeco's recent and controversial cable acquisition in Portugal.
"We would not be interested tonight in going off and chasing a very large acquisition. I've always said [Cogeco is] the one exception we'd like to buy, that we can afford to buy," Mr. Rogers said.
The Audet family that owns Cogeco "doesn't want to sell it," said Mr. Rogers, adding he is not deterred by the European acquisition. "It does not affect us at all. I wouldn't have done it, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't have done it," he said, referring to Louis Audet, Cogeco chief executive.
|
|
