The Federal Government has now hinted the free market will decide the number of wireless players in each region, moving away from its previous stance of seeking out a fourth national wireless player, according to statements made by Industry Minister James Moore on Wednesday in an interview with the The Canadian Press:
“It would be irresponsible for us to have a public policy that wasn’t setting in place the parameters where more competition could emerge, if the market can support it,” Moore said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“Whatever dynamic emerges that the marketplace can support, the marketplace will decide that,” Moore said from Ottawa.
The original plan was to seek out a fourth national wireless player by Ottawa, to help bring wireless prices down and increase competition. That now has appeared to have changed.
Wind Mobile was seen as the forerunner to emerge as a fourth national wireless player, but its parent company VimpelCom pulled out last minute from the 700MHz spectrum auction due to its ongoing conflict with Ottawa’s foreign investment rules.
The Industry Minister also said legislation will soon be tabled on roaming rates the Big 3 charge smaller wireless rivals for using their networks outside of regional areas. Moore also announced plans are coming to force wireless companies to use idle spectrum or possibly face the consequence of losing it altogether.
Ottawa last week released a new TV ad (seen below) showcasing its new wireless policies which have the slogan “More Choice. Lower Prices. Better Service.”
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I like the part of the government finally forcing the Big3 to actually use the hoarded spectrum they bought. It’ll probably not cause lowering of prices cause you’d have to actually force the 3 to compete with each other and which the CRTC still has to find a set of testicles to pull that off.
Well I’m none too happy about this change in stance by the feds. It’s a great concept for those provinces that already have regional carriers like Saskatchewan, Quebec and Manitoba but if you live in any other province other than the aforementioned you get to choose from the big 3 and their plans that reek of collusion. So much for looking out for Joe Consumer I guess. I know the feds can’t magically “create” another national carrier but all the same this just sickens me.
I wonder what other crap are the naive and gullible Canadians going to swallow from the conservatives pre 2015 election?
Wait…there’s an election coming? 😉
While they can’t create the unicorn they can certainly address and remove the restrictions preventing other corps from setting up shop in Canada. There’s your proof that the Feds actions are nothing more than optics and are in fact leaning like they always have been on the side of Robellus
So they gave up. Isn’t the gov’ts job to make decisions? Guess not!
In other words, the government is saying we will let the big three screw us again.