Telecoms square off on government intervention

TORONTO — Canada’s biggest telecom companies faced off with one of their smaller rivals over the government’s approach to regulating the wireless industry at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday. Ted Woodhead, senior vice-president of government and regulatory affairs at Telus Corp., told the audience about the perils of government intervention seen in the European wireless market, a common theme mentioned by the other members of the panel from Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. Woodhead said the government is engaging in “unprecedented regulatory activity” and that Canadians would be better served by a policy that encouraged valuable investment in infrastructure rather than “copycat” wholesale wireless regulation. He confirmed that his company had officially withdrawn its bid for Mobilicity, which the government reportedly warned could have jeopardized Telus’ eligibility in the 2500 MHz auction in 2015. He said the government must be careful to avoid an “investment crisis” like the one in Europe, where LTE coverage is much less than in Canada. “If you take away the incentive to invest, you will see network degradation,” he said. “Regulators need to understand that regulation is a last resort. We should favour markets over regulation.” Jonathan Daniels, vice-president of regulatory law at Bell, said the government was focused on the wrong metric for judging the competitiveness of the wireless sector. “You’re not just focused on price, you’re focused on quality,” he said. “Quality matters.” Daniels said Canada’s is a world leader in usage of most wireless services, including voice, text messages and data. “Generally, what you’ll find in usage is that the Europeans are behind,” he said. “Canadians are actually using because they have high-quality service that makes a difference in their lives.” Simon Lockie, chief regulatory officer of Wind Mobile, praised the government’s actions on the telecom front, saying that Industry Minister James Moore’s actions to block the Telus’ takeover of Mobilicity were appropriate. “The minister is exercising that authority in a way that's completely consistent with his stated policy objective of more competition,” Lockie said. “You still have to respect the fact that the government has policy objectives, and frankly I think they should be commended for sticking to their guns.” He also struck back at those who charge that Wind’s business model only exists because of friendly regulation. “Wind relying on regulation isn't something new,” Lockie said. “The incumbents only built on regulation, spectrum awards and the CRTC taking action.” Ken Engelhart, senior vice-president of regulatory at Rogers, said the government’s position has changed since it first announced it would set aside some spectrum for new entrants in the 2008 AWS auction. Despite the expiry of five-year moratoriums on the transfer of that new-entrant spectrum to the incumbents, the government looks set to block any such transfers. “I think the important thing is that we try to keep principles the same,” Engelhart said. “The principle should be that facilities-based competition is the best way to organize an economy.” — With reporting by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

Telecoms square off on government intervention

News | June 18, 2014

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Telecoms square off on government intervention

News | June 18, 2014

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