Verizon registers to lobby in Canada

U.S. telecom giant Verizon Communications Inc. registered to lobby Canadian government officials in October, following its statements in September that it does not plan to enter the Canadian market. The Lobby Monitor reported Tuesday that Verizon hired Dentons Canada LLP to lobby on its behalf on foreign ownership rules and spectrum allocation. Dentons consultant Peter F. H. Burns registered Oct. 22 to lobby on the telecommunications policy framework “with respect to foreign ownership rules and spectrum allocation.” The registration was changed the same day to “Discussion of the telecommunications policy framework, including section 7 of the Telecommunications Act, subsection 5(1) of the Radiocommunications Act and the policies and rules promulgated by Industry Canada thereunder.” Section 7 of the Telecommunications Act deals with the act's objectives related to Canadian identity, including promoting Canadian ownership and control. Section 5(1) of the Radiocommunication Act deals with the industry minister's powers relating to spectrum licensing. The registration was posted to the federal lobbying commissioner's online registry on Monday. It says Burns will communicate with Industry Canada and the Prime Minister’s Office. Verizon spokesman Bob Verettoni said in an emailed statement Tuesday that the “registration was made because Verizon is a global company, and we meet with government officials around the world on a regular basis." Verizon said in September that it does not have plans, for now, to bring its wireless services to Canada, following months of speculation that it would enter the Canadian market. “I just have to say that the press made a lot more of our interest in Canada than there was on the fourth floor of Basking Ridge,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said in a conference call with analysts in September, referring to Verizon's head office in Basking Ridge, N.J. The Globe and Mail reported in June that Verizon had offered to purchase Wind Mobile for $700 million, and many people in Canada's telecom industry speculated it could also buy new entrant Mobilicity (operated by Dave Wireless Inc.). Government documents obtained earlier this year by The Wire Report through an access to information request indicate Verizon executives planned to meet with a number of Industry Canada officials on May 21, including senior assistant deputy minister Kelly Gillis and associate deputy minister Marta Morgan. Another document confirms Industry Canada senior director Chris Johnstone had a phone conversation with John Doherty, Verizon’s senior vice-president for investor relations, on June 18, though an email with a description of the phone call was blacked out. The government documents also outline the presence Verizon already has in Canada, despite not serving the consumer wireless market. For example, it says Verizon earned $83.7 million in revenue from Canada in 2011, employed about 200 people in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary in 2010, and that most of its Canadian customers are large global firms that Verizon provides wireline services to in different countries. Verizon’s new entry in the federal lobbyist registry follows one from Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd., which has a 65 per cent stake in Wind Mobile. Geoff Norquay, a lobbyist with the Earnscliffe Strategy Group, registered on behalf of VimpelCom to lobby the PMO and Industry Canada officials “regarding Government of Canada foreign investment policy under the Investment Canada Act with respect to telecommunications.” —With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca, Mark Burgess at mburgess@lobbymonitor.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Verizon registers to lobby in Canada

News | November 5, 2013

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