As I speculated in a posting yesterday, Call-Net shares have popped in wake
the CRTC's ruling that will reduce what the carriers pays to lease service
and facilities from ILECs such as Bell and Telus by $25-million a year. Bay
St. analysts, who appeared to take or leave Call-Net before, have jumped
onto the bandwagon by upgrading their rates and raising their 12-month stock
price targets. The big question now is whether the company is a takeover
target? With all the consolidation happening in the U.S., it's natural that
people will look inward for the same kind of trend. The reality, however, is
Canada has already seen a fair bit of consolidation with Rogers' takeover of
Microcell, Manitoba Tel's deal for Allstream, and 360 Networks' acquisition
of GT Telecom.