CityFido is Neutered
You knew it was only a matter of time before Rogers started to hack away at CityFido, which it picked up in the $1.4-billion acquisition of Microcell last year. Calling it a redesign - my colleague Tyler Hamilton rightly calls it the “euthanizing” - Rogers took two swipes to CityFido: first, it scrapped the eat-all-you-can plan for $45 a month plan. This has been replaced by a 750-minute plan for $45 and a 1,500-minute plan for $60. second, it shrank the calling zones so that many calls that used to be local will now be considered long-distance. Rogers will happily charge a whopping 50 cents a minute for LD.
CityFido was a huge thorn in the side of Canada's big three wireless carriers - Telus, Bell and Rogers - because it went against the grain of the higher ARPU mantra chanted these days throughout the industry. It was only a matter of time before someone took Microcell down. The sad thing is Microcell was the most innovative player in the bunch. Who knows, maybe Virgin Canada will breath some excitement back into the industry obsessed with meeting Bay St. expectations.
