DELTA, B.C. – Shaw Communications trucks have rolled into Delta, B.C. as Shaw Communications has launched an overbuild program in the region.
Shaw president Peter Bissonnette told Cartt.ca Monday afternoon that it began expanding its network about three weeks ago after receiving approval from the CRTC to grow its cable territory into Delta, Ladner and the surrounding areas southeast of Vancouver.
“We’ve got our cable up one side of the street and theirs on the other,” Bissonnette said when asked about the existing company already there, Bragg Communications-owned Delta Cable.
“We’ve been receiving calls from people there saying they would like to get Shaw,” said Bissonnette.
There’s a bit of history to the Delta system and Shaw, however. Back in 2006, when then-owner John Thomas decided to sell Delta Cable and Coast Cable, many assumed he would sell to Shaw. After all, Thomas was on Shaw’s board of directors. However, aware of the fact most of his employees would likely be out of work if nearby Shaw bought it, he instead surprised most by selling to what was then Persona Communications, for about $90 million.
Some months later, Persona itself was purchased for a reported $750 million by Bragg Communications, which does business, of course, as EastLink, primarily in Eastern Canada.
It’s no secret Shaw would like to have the Delta region, in order to round out its coverage in the Greater Vancouver Area and Bragg has show itself to be in a selling mood, as it has just recently sold some western systems, in Saskatchewan, to Access Communications.
When asked if Shaw had made any overtures to purchase Delta Cable from Bragg since acquiring an existing system is the more economical way to go as compared to overbuilding and competing, Bissonnette said: “They know what we are doing. There’s always more than one way to skin a cat you know.”
With the first phase of the overbuild under way, as Shaw expands from its existing system in Surrey into Delta, further phases call for building into the Ladner area as well. All told, the region targeted serves about 28,000 households and this initial phase, into Delta, should take about six months, said Bissonnette.
Shaw does not plan to overbuild Bragg’s other B.C. system, Coast Cable, in Sechelt, B.C., added Bissonnette.
A representative from Bragg could not be reached for comment by press time.
– Greg O’Brien
