Last April, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a ruling on mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which it said would “enable further competition in the marketplace.”
MVNO access allows smaller companies to buy wholesale network access from established incumbents, to resell to customers. The CRTC ruling favoured only regional companies with purchased spectrum and facilities could get MVNO access.
Data On Tap Inc., also known as dotmobile, filed a petition to the Governor in Council opposing the decision. Ottawa had to decide whether or not to intervene in the CRTC decision on MVNOs.
On the final day to announce its decision, Innovation, Science and Industry said it would not intervene and rejected the petition on Thursday afternoon.
“The Governor in Council has carefully considered the petition and reached a position that supports competition and affordability. A primary consideration in this review was that expanding MVNO access to providers that do not possess spectrum and have not invested in facilities would undermine the work of smaller regional providers that have already invested substantially to increase competition. Based on this review, the Governor in Council has declined to vary the CRTC’s decision,” said François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.
“While recent declines in wireless prices are encouraging, prices are still too high. That’s why we’ll watch carefully to ensure these rules for MVNO access will lead to more choice and lower prices for Canadians. We will continue to do everything we can to make life more affordable for Canadians,” added Champagne, in a perfectly-scripted statement from the Liberal Party playbook.
The federal government and @FP_Champagne have decided to reject competition and instead double down on Canada's exorbitant cell phone prices. Unfortunate for Canadians, that pay some of the highest prices in the world, but unsurprising given their track record. https://t.co/oTLcdo3Q2X
— Tamir (@tamir_i) April 14, 2022
Today is the last business day that the federal cabinet has to rule on a petition to change the thoroughly uncompetitive wireless market in Canada. A 🧵! 1/12
— Peter Nowak (@peternowak) April 14, 2022
“Today the government re-committed to a broken system they know does not work,” said OpenMedia Campaigns Director Matt Hatfield, in a statement.
“Infrastructure-based telecom competition has failed to lower our world-leading wireless prices for many years. And yet, Minister Champagne and Cabinet are once again backing that failing model as their only solution to the problem. Meanwhile, MVNO service is a globally-proven model for reducing wireless prices – and yet today’s decision continues to lock Canadians out of that service in almost all circumstances. We deserve a far better policy response from our government that actually addresses our telecom market’s obvious competition and affordability problems,” added Hatfield.
The decision now makes it nearly impossible for small player MVNOs to be established in Canada, such as Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile. Nothing to see here, folks, enjoy the long weekend.
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@$$h0!3s
LMFAO shocker /s
Such a devastating setback. The next milestone for me is to get everyone to vote the Liberals out of power but Turdeau has managed to push that goalpost back as well. Ffs.
Would love to see Justin’s bank records and those of his family. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see some unusually large recent deposits.
I really think any person in a gov position should have their bank accounts transparent
Good idea. But, although he denies it, is not be surprised if he’s got offshore or other less traceable assets. People in his circle were called out in the Panama papers for just that kind of thing.
The Trudeau and Biden families know how to get paid.
I’m no Trudeau defender but expecting anything would change with another party isn’t realistic. How many years did Harper have to actually do something? Talk means nothing, we get that from the Liberals already. Trying doesn’t do anything either, Harper had a majority in 2011 and did nothing. The Liberals and Conservatives only priority is supporting business, and if the NDP got in they’d like toe the line also.
I’d say there’s a significant difference between doing nothing and trying and failing. One took concrete steps, that while they might not have succeeded fully, they undoubtably made significant improvements. The other hasn’t done a single thing, hasn’t tried a single thing and hasn’t accomplished a single thing.
Also, Justin keeps getting caught personally in ethical violations. Usually with more than a strong hint of personal or family benefit. I don’t remember hearing about Harper taking bribes.
Justin is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime type of corrupt, silver spoon fed nightmare.
But, but, but LOOK MA! Our rates have declined by a arbitrary 25%! YAY! /s
And climbed up an extra $5 this month.
This is a tough one for me… I understand what position the CRTC is in regarding the investments Rogers, Bell and Telus have all had to bear with to install their nation wide networks over the course of decades. A cell tower x 4,516 isn’t cheap.
But also I feel that the decision made by both the CRTC and the Liberal Feds is a wrong one. Remember that it is the incumbents who pay the government hefty sums for spectrum every time it comes up on auction.
Even if MVNO’s had to pay a higher price than a discount wholesale rate, it would have been better for Canadians as a whole, with new jobs, options, innovations and offerings in the marketplace.
Just look at TekSavvy, a well liked provider who often relies upon incumbents wired networks. Created jobs, created infrastructure, expanded, delivered. There’s no reason that shouldn’t have translated to wireless as well.
What wait.. this doesn’t make any sense.. Trudeau is a nice honest man who always wants to help Canadians live a better life and grow a family and own a single detached home and make phone calls from a reasonably priced cellular.. this doesn’t make any sense. I don’t get it.
Hi mm
One of the many reasons I wanna move out of Canada
“While recent declines in wireless prices are encouraging…“ what declines? Has anyone’s monthly bill actually gone down? Mine’s gone up.
Last month Virgin increased my monthly bill and when I called to complain about it, not only did they rescind the price, they added a gig to my data.
They’re talking about plans that nobody actually has or wants, they’re listed but if they had to break down how many people actually saved with those plans I suspect the numbers would be insignificant.
/me pretends to be shocked
It’s easy to take a deserved swipe at the Liberals over this, but the sad fact is that this would have happened regardless of the party in power. The system is broken.
I’m not sure that’s a good assumption. While in power, the cons brought in new carriers and tried to foster their growth, squashed 3 year contracts, introduced the wireless code, brought in number portability, forbade arbitrary termination fees that weren’t based on subsidy, capped roaming and data overages (remember the $100k accidental roaming stories?) and squashed the $1000/GB domestic roaming fees. The next reasonable step was either forced wholesale rates or improved MVNO regulation.
The Libs have literally done nothing and have instead arguably regressed the state of the wireless market from a consumer perspective.
If one party tries to help, even if not enough, and the other does nothing, it’s a difficult argument to say they’d both do the same thing. Outcome might be similar but not for lack of trying.
Point taken. The system definitely needs an overhaul by someone willing to p*ss a few powerful people off. I suppose my overarching (and admittedly cynical) point was that while a different govt may shift things from one spectrum to the other, they’re all ultimately self-serving and the public (or a segment thereof) ends up getting hosed…
I’m not sure that’s a good assumption. While in power, the cons brought in new carriers and tried to foster their growth, squashed 3 year contracts, introduced the wireless code, brought in number portability, forbade arbitrary termination fees that weren’t based on subsidy, capped roaming and data overages (remember the $100k accidental roaming stories?) and squashed the $1000/GB domestic roaming fees. The next reasonable step was either forced wholesale rates or improved MVNO regulation.
The Libs have literally done nothing and have instead arguably regressed the state of the wireless market from a consumer perspective.
If one party tries to help, even if not enough, and the other does nothing, it’s a difficult argument to say they’d both do the same thing. Outcome might be similar but not for lack of trying.
Looks like nothing will ever change we will always get screwed over in Canada for a good phone plan as usual