Rogers Communications
RCI
announced a five-year strategic alliance with
Microsoft
MSFT
to help enterprise and small and medium business customers accelerate their digitization process. This will help the organizations take complete advantage of hybrid work and 5G-enabled solutions.
Per the agreement, Rogers, along with its own reliable 5G network, will leverage Microsoft Azure’s public cloud capabilities to power innovation, providing customers with new experiences, and enabling employees to collaborate with more agility across the organization.
Rogers is the first company to offer Operator Connect Mobile in Canada, and globally. Operator Connect Mobile is a seamless way to integrate a users’ mobile identity with Microsoft Teams collaboration and productivity.
This first-of-a-kind, all-in-one communications and collaboration solution will allow organizations to upgrade legacy infrastructure. It will also allow companies to significantly reduce costs on redundant wireline voice services while enhancing employee and customer experience.
Strengthening Wireless, Internet Businesses to Aid Growth
Rogers is expected to benefit from continuing strong demand for data by consumers and businesses. Improving Wireless penetration rate is anticipated to boost subscriber base.
The company expects the demand for broadband data to witness growth of about 30% per year. Rogers Communications currently offers access to 1 gigabit per sec (Gbps) speed to its user base, covering its entire Cable footprint, with some areas able to receive access speeds of up to 1.5 Gbps.
As of Dec 31, 2021, the company expanded Canada’s largest and most reliable 5G network which reached more than 1,500 communities and 70% of the Canadian population.
Rogers continues to benefit from Internet subscriber additions and a shift of Internet users to higher-usage tiers. As of Dec 31, 2021, the Internet subscriber count was nearly 2.67 million, up 67K from the year-ago quarter’s levels.
Also, surging work-from-home trends and online-learning practice owing to the coronavirus-induced quarantines and lockdowns boosted Internet usage.
The company’s investments in the 5G spectrum and partnerships with leading real estate companies to support 5G infrastructure deployment are catalysts. It expanded the Rogers 5G network to 173 markets across Canada, which will be a major growth driver over the long haul.
Further, in March 2021, Rogers acquired
Shaw Communications
SJR
, which is expected to have expanded the former’s user base. Shaw is a major cable provider in Western Canada and owns Canada’s fourth-largest mobile provider, Freedom Mobile.
Before Rogers, its chief competitor
Bell Canada Enterprise
BCE
had made an offer to buy Shaw Communications.
Bell’s initial bid for Shaw valued the company at $37 per share, higher than Rogers’ initial bid of $35. However, Bell and Shaw Communications could not agree on other conditions, which allowed Rogers to seal the deal.
The acquisition enables Rogers to use Shaw’s fiber network in Western Canada for 5G backhaul. As part of the transaction, the companies will together invest $2.5 billion in 5G networks over the next five years across Western Canada, which will enhance competitiveness.
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