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As Shaw Communications Inc. prepares to report quarterly earnings this week, much of the buzz has been about how the telecom giant’s wireless play, Freedom Mobile, sparked a price war with the Big Three incumbents just before the holiday season.

Analysts expect Freedom to gain momentum in the New Year after its “Big Gig” plans with 10 gigabytes of data for only $50 triggered retaliation from its larger competitors, which responded in December with limited time offers of 10 GB for $60 on their higher quality networks. Consumers rushed to get the unprecedented deals from Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp.

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“We believe Freedom’s momentum is set to accelerate,” Barclays analyst Phillip Huang wrote Monday.

Huang expects Shaw’s progress will be driven by its larger, cheaper data plans and its launch of the new iPhone X at $0 down – a departure from standard industry practice – and its network enhancements that allow it to sell iPhones in the first place.