It appears incumbents have continued to ramp up their efforts to pressure Ottawa to change their wireless rules which have been accused of favouring American wireless carrier Verizon.
The Tri-Cities NOW reports busloads of roughly 500 TELUS employees dropped off petitions and staged a protest outside Industry Minister James Moore’s constituency office in Porty Moody, British Columbia last Thursday.
“Bring on Verizon, just don’t give them sweetheart deals”
Telus spokesman Shawn Hall, told the paper the following:
“[It’s] a foreign company getting a two-for-one advantage over Canadian firms and that’s just not right,”
“All we’re saying is put us on an equal footing with them.”
Hall also went on to reiterate Ottawa’s current plans will cost Canadian jobs and investment in rural areas.
Some TELUS employees who reside in the Minister’s riding, such as Jennifer Connors said “We’re hoping we’ll change his [Moore’s] mind, or at least change some policies that allow it to be more of a level playing field for the Canadian companies.” She went on to say 600 TELUS employees live in the Tri-Cities (Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam).
TELUS appears to be drumming up support from its loyal employees and business affiliates, as one of its recent dealer store chains publicly criticized Ottawa’s wireless plans as “un-Canadian.”
Industry Minister James Moore is currently on a cross country media tour to reiterate the Federal government’s plans, which are the wireless spectrum auction will take place as planned without any rule changes, despite ongoing ads by incumbents which have been classified as “dishonest” by the Minister.
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This really reeks of desperation! Come on seriously….
How about Telus give back all the FREE spectrum it got in the 1980s. Wouldn’t that be fair, since it was FREE. Why is the same company worried about fair, but sticking it in the ass with their rate plans.
that actually happened?
Rogers, Bell and Telus were all given free spectrum initially.
Telus didn’t exist in that decade.
They were founded in 1990 but also bought several older companies such as ClearNet who received free spectrum. Ironically 20% of Telus use to belong to Verizon …
like i said before Verizon is the only one the can compete and take down against the Monopoly BIG 3
they took advantage of themselves while setting up shop in the last 20 years
The Big 3 have plenty of spectrum already.
This is not tilting the playing field. This is giving a new entrant (Verizon) a fighting chance to have a business plan that actually offers a return on investment, and a reason to invest in Canada.
The Big 3 want nothing more than the status quo, which means that they’ll swallow up Wind and Mobilicity in due course that monopoly not competition , just like they do any new entrants eventually (remember Clearnet and Microcell AKA FIDO?)
fight the power, telus employees
I honestly do not think Verizon up here is going to change much of anything. They will likely fall in line with everyone else’s pricing because no one wants a price war.
Welcome Verizon! Eff the big 3 and thier bullshit…. Monopoly my ass, this just wreaks of sour puss. Commercials are border line desperate for support. We’ll all be better off in the long run.
Competition > monopoly
Is this why my Optik TV and internet keeps on failing multiple times per day? I am switching to Shaw for my home stuff and probably will switch to Rogers for wireless if I decide to get an iPhone 5S.
They are getting Desperate…wonder what else they have got planned.
Hmmm……perhaps Telus should fly in all their employees from their call centre in the Philippines while they’re at it.
Or what would be even more poignant would be have Verizon bus “former” Telus, employees those Philippine workers replaced protest outside Minister Moore’s constituency office about how “fair” and “equal” Telus is. Maybe they could add “former” Bell & Rogers employees to the mix as well.
Hahaha!! That would be classic! That would Shut the big 3 up regarding job loss
Oh please these are the same people who will apply to work at Verizon because all their jobs have been outsourced to Asia.
Would be nice to see Telus work this hard to look after their customers – only now when they see trouble ahead they start to work hard, but it is for themselves…