Canada’s CRTC takes the air out of WIND’s launch
Back in August, Globalive, a big winner in Canada’s AWS auction, announced that it was going to launch its network under the WIND brand and shake up the Canadian wireless industry. Now it looks as if this will not be happening — at least in the immediate future — as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled yesterday that WIND does not meet the Canadian ownership rules. The rules, which are set out in the Telecommunications Act, stipulate that wireless carriers must be majority owned and controlled to the sum of 80% by Canadians. Because Orascom, an Egyptian company, owns 65.1% of the equity in WIND as well as the rights to the WIND brand in Canada, the CRTC ordered that WIND not launch its network until the company is fully compliant with the Act. Strangely enough, during last years wireless spectrum auction, Industry Canada ruled that WIND did indeed meet Canadian ownership laws as set out in the Telecommunications Act, but strong opposition from the existing major carriers — Bell, Rogers and TELUS, companies whose ownership meets complies with the Act — at a hearing on October 1st likely helped the ruling. So what does the future hold for WIND and its $442mm CAD ($413.8mm USD) worth of 1700MHz UMTS/HSPA spectrum? Nothing unless it manages to re-organize its board and find new investors.Read
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As corrupt as the CRTC is, it’s a necessary evil (I just happen to think they’re a little too strict with the Canadian content levels, though).
Bottom line is, yeah this sucks, but I’m glad the law is there.
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Again, another Canadian that is outraged by this ruling. Canadians in general pay more than anyone else for less than standard/equal services. I for one would love to see the collapse of the monopoly like structure that these corporations have used to bend over their customers for far too many years.
Unlike the cellular carriers in the US, we do not suffer from dropped calls. And as proven recently, our cellular carriers are much more technologically advanced than those in the U.S.
Right, it can’t possibly be because you have only 30 million people divided up between 3 national carriers, where in the US we have 300 million people divided up between 4 (with a few more regional carriers). Try putting 13 million iPhones on the Rogers network and see how it holds up… as for more advanced, you may have hsdpa 21 mbps running in a few major cities, but its not across the whole country and you definitely aren’t seeing speeds anywhere close to that.
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Canada is Bush-era-USA-2.0 thanks to Harper and the conservatives.
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The CRTC is supposed to be non-political.. so I doubt Harper and the Conservatives had any say.
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Most of you think its a good thing Canada blocks foreign competition from setting up shop in Canada, well guess what because of the CRTC other countries DO NOT ALLOW Canadian telecommunication companies to set up shop because of Canada’s ridiculous protectionist rules. It goes tit-for-tat, dont let us into your country, you cant come into ours.
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It’s a joke, now were are stuck being price gouged and forced into 3 contracts.
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what does it matter if its owned by Canadians??
It matters a lot actually, if you prefer your country being run by someone else you have no intelligence.
All WIND has to do is gain 85% Canadian ownership and they CAN launch their damn company. It’s not an unreasonable request.
Better customer service or not, it is an Egyptian company benefiting from your cash spent and will be investing it in their own interests…
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Damn…wind is gonna be carrying the 9700 and have no contracts…guess ill have to wait a bit longer at ugly fido. But wind better get organised before Dec.17 cause my contract runs out then and I aint going back. What I don’t understand is why wind didn’t have themselves in order before setting an opening date. They must have know about a this law…hell, I think anyone who’s anyone in the telecommunications industry knows about this law, yet they were arrogant enough to go through with everything prior to making sure their business is in order. Not a good sign from a consumers position cause they kinda look like they don’t know what they’re doing. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
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Industry Canada allowed them to buy the spectrum and approved there business to poerate here, then CRTC shuts them down. I dont think it was completely based on the law. Pretty sure the CRTC is in the big 3’s pockets
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I’m a lawyer myself, and I can tell you that laws are rarely so clear in that the answer is immediately obvious.
Globalive apparently thought they had developed a compliant corporate structure, and Industry Canada had previous agreed with that assessment. It’s unfortunate that now they are facing a roadblock in bringing much-needed competition to Canada.
You seem to have our Canadian Common Law structure confused with Civil Law structure. In common law, laws are interpreted mostly through precedence (past rulings) not through the actual law itself, meaning interpretations are constantly changing. Judges in Canada have the authority to change how our laws are interpreted, and their rulings on that law. Where as in Civil law, what is written as law, is the law.
TDot is right, should rule based on precedent, not set in stone codes (civil law). Although who knows if there is precedent for a case like this before.
Ironically Nortel is being purchased by Ericcson, I guess no one noticed that. How does that make sense. I know that RIM was interested. CRTC laws are outdated and are in need of revision. A lot has changed since many of these laws were originally written – unfortunately Canadians aren’t vocal enough about what they want. I agree that laws are needed to guard against massive companies coming into a new market and crushing the competition. For example if Vodafone or Telefónica came into Canada they could swallow Rogers,Bell and Telus combined if they wanted to. There are certainly ways this could be done.
This is a lose situation for Canadian consumers. But at least the big three are happy.
Daaamit.
Maybe the SAF charged by the big three goes to the CRTC bureaucrats. LOL
No one at the CRTC gives a rat’s ass that the profits are leaving Canada. But money implies control, no matter how much Globalive protests to the contrary. The issue is that, under majority foreign control, Canadians could begin to rely on Wind for vital services. It is possible that Egypt could pressure the majority owners to put wiretapping, etc, into the network, and to report back to the Egyptian government. It is also possible that, at some point, Canada would no longer be friends with Egypt, and that through strategic decisions, possibly made over a long period of time, Wind could be used to further Egyptian interests in Canada, against the wishes of Canada.
Is this likely? No. Is it possible? Of course.
Back in the 1980s, the US government made the mistake of allowing the Soviets to build the American embassy in Moscow. Upon completion, it was found to be so full of bugs and wiretaps that it was useless. An extreme example, of course, but the message is there: you simply cannot allow a foreign country to control vital parts of your infrastructure.
Having said that, it is quite possible to come up with a contained market space for Wind to participate in (eg they can have no more than x% market share, cannot service any governments or public corporations, etc etc).
Boogaloo
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Ah, I never thought of that.. thanks
GSM Drageon creator Hugh Ford turns 40 this week
@ #2 regard national identity:
- Canada right now has the identity of one of the countries that has the highest fees for using a cellphone anywhere in the world. All of this will be magnified by 100x when the world comes to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic and everyone will be going “wow $30 for a sim card?? wow charging for incoming call? wow charging for incoming text messages? wow $0.30/min for long distance within canada itself? wow 3 year contracts?” When everything is said and done after the Olympics, it will all be clearer: Canada has the loonie, the beaver, maple syrup, oh and the cellphone.
@ #16 regarding national security:
Everyone have spies and counter spies. But I guess if all else fails, snoop the cellular network and filter out all the fictitious pay go account names. Oh crap there are like thousands of Michael Jacksons!
People forgot that Fido was once back up by T-mobile or Rogers by AT&T they where not able to have more then 49% of there shares, why would Wind be allowed. If Wind is allowed to do so the other should be allowed too.
Last time i check, Wind has a bad reputation in Italy & in Greece.
I notice lots of people complaining however they only see the small picture, last time i check Canada is not the most expensive. As per OECD.
High usage
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/622320081807
Low usage
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/622303805401
@ #19
Canadian cellphone rates among world’s worst
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08/11/canada-cellphone-rates-expensive-oecd.html
USA, Canada, Spain Win Title for Most Expensive Cell Phone Bills
http://cell-phone-providers-review.toptenreviews.com/usa-canada-spain-win-title-for-most-expensive-cell-phone-bills.html
You guys realize that the US does this for the airline industry (at least), right?