Cogeco’s acquisition of independent Internet service provider Oxio marks neither the end of the Oxio name nor the end of the ambitions of its founders. The money obtained after this transaction allows them to launch a new software platform called Gaiia and intended to revolutionize the way suppliers take care of their customers.
“At Oxio, I’ve often said that we were a software company disguised as a service provider,” says Marc-André Campagna, co-founder and ex-CEO of Oxio. The young entrepreneur now occupies the same role at Gaiia, his new company named in honor of the Greek goddess of the Earth.
Mr. Campagna has also already declared that it was out of the question that he would one day sell Oxio, something which was however officially carried out on March 3 when Cogeco gave its owners the tidy sum of 100 million dollars for acquire its 48,000 customers — located mainly in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia — and access to its software platform.
To apologize, the young businessman explains that his new adventure is an extension of what Oxio was, with a better financial situation. “I promise with Gaiia to take the right actions to create the best outcome for customers, employees and shareholders, in that order,” he says, twice rather than once.
Gaiia wants to offer other providers around the world this platform, which has largely enabled Oxio to establish its favorable reputation with consumers, in a residential Internet market where the satisfaction index is traditionally low.
“Telecoms have a worse satisfaction index than banks,” says Marc-André Campagna. It’s because they have the wrong tools. We realized that we could help them better serve their customers. After the sale of Oxio, I could have afforded to let go of everything, but I am really passionate about what we were trying to solve with Oxio and, now, with Gaiia. »
Less infrastructure, more services
Gaiia currently has five clients in Canada, the United States and Latin America — including Cogeco Connexion. The company plans to take the next few months to refine its product with them and build a reputation that will then ensure its growth in other markets.
Gaiia can take advantage of a strong trend in the global telecommunications industry: access to local infrastructures is becoming easier and easier for new entrants. For example, in the United States, the owners of the main wired and even wireless networks have discovered that they can take advantage of the appearance in the national market of virtual providers of Internet, telephone, television or mobile services. which nevertheless compete with them in the offer to the general public.
Virtual operators generated revenues of US$25 billion in the United States last year. According to the market analysis firm ReportLinker, these revenues are expected to climb to 38 billion by 2030. Globally, revenues of virtual operators could reach 157 billion US dollars in seven years.
The software platform developed by Gaiia indirectly targets this market. It allows a network manager to virtualize and digitize their operations, including technical support and billing. It also allows virtual operators to do the same from a wholesaler’s infrastructure.
A spade to the CRTC
Virtually every advanced economy on the planet agrees on the importance of digital technologies to their sustained growth over the next few years. This is what partly explains this movement towards better access to networks. “In countries like the United States, we have understood that digital is the heart of economic growth, and we are doing everything to connect everyone to digital as soon as possible”, notes Marc-André Campagna.
It is an unsubtle tip sent to the Canadian government, which slows down this trend in the country despite what it says. Ottawa keeps repeating the importance of the digital economy to justify its massive investment in extending Internet and cellular networks to the regions furthest from major urban centres.
At the same time, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) limits the emergence of new independent providers across the country by requiring new entrants to own at least part of the physical infrastructure.
“Canada could learn a lot from what is being done in telecoms in the United States,” says Campagna, citing the example of the Federal Communications Commission’s site, which emphasizes transparency and public access. to his information.
Perhaps the founder of Gaiia will see his wish granted sooner than he thinks. Because by a strange coincidence, it is also the FCC site that the new president of the CRTC, Vicky Eatrides, quoted last January when she took office, when she was asked how she saw her organization changing over the of the five-year term that she is just beginning.
Having more competition in the Canadian telecom sector would be good for consumers, she said. It would also probably benefit Gaiia…