The quest by Altice USA and Rogers Communications to acquire and split off Canadian cableco Cogeco is quickly escalating into one of the most dramatic and unorthodox M&A stories of the year. Rogers’ latest strategy to secure a deal is to pledge C$3bn of network infrastructure investments in Quebec. In reality, all it has done is redress an old investment promise as a brand-new commitment. Earlier this year, when Rogers set out to become Canada’s first operator to launch commercial 5G, it warned that regulatory uncertainty surrounding rules for 5G, and for shared access, could jeopardize its plans to invest almost C$3bn in infrastructure build-out. At the time, CTRC, the Canadian regulator, was reviewing whether to mandate the main operators…