I got this question in my inbox late today:
Hello. I wanted to ask you a question about the spectrum auction. It seems to me that the telcos are spending a lot of money to get their message out. And from what you tell us, there are people who are lining up to fight them. The question I have is who is winning?
Thanks for the question. My perception is that the big three telcos are losing this fight. I say that because of two things. First of all, Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn’t changing his mind on this issue and he sets the rules for the spectrum auction. If you don’t change his mind, it’s game over for the big three telcos. According to the Toronto Star, he had this to say:
“We have every intention of continuing that policy in the interests of Canadian consumers and the broad Canadian public, including proceeding with the auction as we have laid out for some time,” Harper said.
“While I appreciate some companies have interests that are very important, our government’s first priority is the wider Canadian public and Canadian consumers and we are convinced this is where they want to see us go,” Harper said.
The second thing is that the public does not seem swayed by the arguments of the big three. When I discuss this with my customers, both residential and business, most of them say the same thing. Canadians pay too much for cell service and they feel that they are being ripped off by the big three. This seems to be backed up by a poll that I did a while back. As I type this, just over 75% of respondents say that they want Verizon to come into Canada. Now this is based on only 450 or so respondents and web polls are hardly scientific, but it falls in line with what I’m hearing on the street. Thus because the public doesn’t seem to be swayed and neither does the guy who sets the rules, I feel that the big three telcos are not winning hearts and minds.
Though I will note that they have six weeks to turn that around. That’s when they have to declare their intentions to participate in the spectrum auction. Good luck to them.
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This entry was posted on August 11, 2013 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Hey IT Nerd! Which Side Do You Think Is Winning The Spectrum Auction Fight?
I got this question in my inbox late today:
Hello. I wanted to ask you a question about the spectrum auction. It seems to me that the telcos are spending a lot of money to get their message out. And from what you tell us, there are people who are lining up to fight them. The question I have is who is winning?
Thanks for the question. My perception is that the big three telcos are losing this fight. I say that because of two things. First of all, Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn’t changing his mind on this issue and he sets the rules for the spectrum auction. If you don’t change his mind, it’s game over for the big three telcos. According to the Toronto Star, he had this to say:
“We have every intention of continuing that policy in the interests of Canadian consumers and the broad Canadian public, including proceeding with the auction as we have laid out for some time,” Harper said.
“While I appreciate some companies have interests that are very important, our government’s first priority is the wider Canadian public and Canadian consumers and we are convinced this is where they want to see us go,” Harper said.
The second thing is that the public does not seem swayed by the arguments of the big three. When I discuss this with my customers, both residential and business, most of them say the same thing. Canadians pay too much for cell service and they feel that they are being ripped off by the big three. This seems to be backed up by a poll that I did a while back. As I type this, just over 75% of respondents say that they want Verizon to come into Canada. Now this is based on only 450 or so respondents and web polls are hardly scientific, but it falls in line with what I’m hearing on the street. Thus because the public doesn’t seem to be swayed and neither does the guy who sets the rules, I feel that the big three telcos are not winning hearts and minds.
Though I will note that they have six weeks to turn that around. That’s when they have to declare their intentions to participate in the spectrum auction. Good luck to them.
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This entry was posted on August 11, 2013 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.