Globalive vs Rogers, Bell, Telus
p2pnet news view Politics | Mobiles:- Oh! The Horror!
Rogers, Bell Canada Enterprises and Telus have lost their fight to keep the Canadian Mobile Monopoly to themselves, bringing the dreaded ‘C’ word into play.
C = Competition.
Six weeks after the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) told Globalive, the country’s fourth-biggest wireless operator, to take a hike because Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holding SAE held too much control through debt financing, “We are satisfied that in this particular case [Globalive's] board of directors cannot be controlled by the foreign investor,” the Financial Post has industry minister Tony Clement saying.
Tsk tsk. All those lobbying dollars gone to waste.
The decision is “expected to be a blow to the big three wireless providers — Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., and Telus Corp. — as they fought to keep Globalive out of the Canadian market,” says the story, going on:
“Under the federal Telecommunications Act, the federal cabinet has the power to vary CRTC decisions. Mr. Clement said he is satisfied the debt financing provided by Orascom does not constitute foreign control and no changes would be required to the company’s organization. “We are satisfied that in this particular case [Globalive's] board of directors cannot be controlled by the foreign investor.”
Before the announcement, “potential rivals were already playing down Globalive’s potential entry,” says the story, quoting Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed as saying:
“There’s no question in my mind that Canada cannot support more than three national facilities-based players. It’s inconceivable to me.”
Did we mention C = Competition?
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Financial Post – Globalive’s entry boon for consumers, Clement says, December 11, 2009
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December 12th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Personally, I wouldn’t care if a proposed new company was totally foreign-controlled, if it were willing to come into this country and build a competing infrastructure, and offer competing wired phone and broadband internet services (where we really haven’t got competition).
Anything that would circumvent the monopolies held in various parts of Canada by Bell, Rogers, and Telus, and take that smug smile of arrogance off their faces.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Personally, as above, i would love a foreign telecommunications company…. it might just bring our data prices down (one of the highest in the world!)
forgot to mention: Someone needs to sue evony for copyright infringement
Oh god… when will evony learn…