Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Just thought I'd throw it out there as an FYI:


Telus boosts retail presence with Black's Photo acquisition
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/telus-acquires-blacks-photo/article1279245/

maybe it'll drive their prices down

I hope it doesn't destroy the chain though. They always have some decent stuff.

Wow, I am looking forward to the impressive lineup of new camera phones. About time they dumped the SLRs. (where is the sarcastic emoticon?)

I hope they do not clear out the cameras

seems like an odd purchase for them

what gives?

I didn't even know that Bell bought The Source back in July. As mentioned in the article it's about distribution, though how much more can you distribute when there's a Bell store, their stuff at Best Buy, FutureShop and almost ever other cell store. I guess it's more around exclusivity but I sometimes wonder whether that does work or not...

Yes, its all about distrobution.... and it makes sense for them, as the camera's in cell phone's are becoming better and better, one day they could replace small point and shoot camera's at a consumer level, as most people won't care, and the fact that they have both in one product is a bonus.

I heard about this the other day on 680 News. The part that surprised me the most was the relatively low $28 million price tag of the deal. Darren Entwistle probably has that much cash hidden in his sock drawer.

Since it is virtually impossible to buy a phone these days without a camera of some sort, it makes sense for TELUS to instantly expand their Ontario retail presence by buying Black's. I doubt they will make much money just selling handsets, but think of all that network traffic customers will pay for when they sign up with TELUS after buying a new cameraphone at Black's...

Wouldn't it be funny if Telus and Bell decided to merge. Actually I think they were thinking about this a few years ago.

I would sure hope that it never happens and that the CRTC would prevent this from happening as I think there's not enough competition....

I've pretty much concluded that the CRTC is here for the corporations and not the people.

Agreed. Like how all the major providers lobbied against the CRTC to not proceed forward with some cell phone plan calculator that was developed using tax payer's money....

There was an attempt to do this about 2 years ago but Telus backed out of the deal. Then the Teacher's Pension Fund tried to buy Bell and take it private.

Oh boy, I can't wait to make calls from my DSLR's in the near future!

As for Bell and Telus merging, it could happen, just look at Roger's and Fido. But Fido was a no frills branded service which Roger's has sorta kept. Telus on the other hand is not.

I'm not looking forward to them removing photo equipment and picture supplies and replacing them with a kiosk of crappy Telus phones.

Rogers has Fido.
Telus has a no frill company. Koodo.
Bell has Solo (and a contract with Virgin).
And Canadians have NO GOOD OPTIONS.[/b]

I had some Bell agent tell me last week that Bell is going to revolutionize the industry next year in time for the Olympics with a new network and all new phones... it started cause I denied a contract renewal of 3yrs to get a hardware upgrade.

I was told, next year, Bell will be the best and strongest provider in North America...


I still didn't renew...

That is only because Bell is trying to quickly build a GSM network to capture a lot of business when the 2010 Olympics arrive. I could be wrong but right now only Roges has a GSM network. When all the visitors arrive for the Olympics with their GSM phones if Rogers is the only GSM network in town, Rogers will make millions!

Bell blah blah blah... 4G blah blah blah... Bell is STILL struggling to get the world standard GSM out. Bell's not going to revolutionize anything.
Remember when Bell was the first provider in Canada to bring TV to your cell phone... ... ... exactly.

Bell owns 100% of Virgin now.
http://www.bce.ca/en/news/releases/bm/2 ... -+Wireless

Funny you mention it, I came across this not long ago...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/090812/b ... lus_merger

That's very interesting considering that Bell and Telus have a network sharing arrangement to jointly deploy HSPA and LTE wireless network technology.

http://www.bce.ca/en/news/releases/bm/2008/10/10/74991.html
"Bell will greatly reduce time to market for its network overlay by leveraging its existing national network-sharing agreement with TELUS Corporation."

http://about.telus.com/cgi-bin/media_news_viewer.cgi?news_id=956&mode=2&news_year=2008
"TELUS has entered into a network sharing agreement with Bell, which builds on and enhances arrangements in place since 2001. The network sharing agreement allows TELUS to lower the cost, increase the speed of the build-out and gives TELUS the ability to offer the widest national coverage for HSPA"

Bell's move to buy The Source was a good one, as when they did they kicked out other cell phone provider's, so less distribution points for the competition

I'm assuming that Telus will grow Black's into more than a Camera store and have sole distribution points for cellular as well. I was surprised when Bell and Telus didn't merge, as Telus used to piggy back on Bell's network outside of the main corridor (Windsor to Montreal), and I think so did Clearnet.

To be exact, Bell owns 100% of Virgin Canada, not 100% of Virgin.

this will definitely help on their sales...more locations now available.

this will definitely help on their sales...more locations now available and more accessories can be sold.