When Rogers bought Shaw they retained Shaw-mobile although Freedom Mobile was sold to Quebecor to appease the regulators whom were opposed to the potential anti-competitive circumstances of concentrating mobile phone service to three major providers.

Shaw mobile customers were attached to the Freedom mobile network with roaming agreements on Rogers and Telus networks, subject to bandwidth limits.

Maintaining the Status Quo

 

Rogers must move Shaw mobile customers to their network (from Freedom mobile), although the transition time frame is not public as far as I know.

To ensure favourable public opinion in support of the merger Rogers stated they would provide Shaw mobile customers with at least the same terms for five years, although they could select a different Rogers plan if desired.

The transition

Transition officially commenced on June 6th.  I am an early adaptor so I went ahead and made the switch.

For me, the change represents an improvement as I went from free calls anywhere in Canada and free text anywhere in the world with 300 meg of data a month for $3.30 to free calls anywhere in Canada and free text anywhere in the world plus 1 gig of data per month free.  Plan fixed for 5 years.

However the process was not completely seamless but pretty fast and certainly efficient so far (I am still waiting for my SIM cards).  For me Rogers over promised and under delivered the services, no big deal but a bit misleading.

The Glitches

First, transition steps;

When making the change I was advised a credit check was necessary.  No issue for me except inquiries can impact your credit score, but for some this could throw a curve in the process.  ( You need to supply two pieces of ID as well).

So not a seamless cutover but most people will have no issue.

Second, over promise;

During the conversion the agent provided me with details of the new plan showing data speeds of up to 250 Mbps (basically 5 g) however after concluding plan set up I received a plan details document showing data speeds of up to 150 meg (4g).

With Shaw mobile the speed is LTE slower so this is an improvement but I do believe it is not proper to get me to accept the transfer based on on speed than downgrade to another.

Overall

I am getting faster, cheaper service so I have no complaints.  My recommendation to Rogers though is to be upfront about the ID and credit check requirement when asking people to switch ( at least include in the FAQ) and take care to quote the correct network speeds.