Here’s something that will scare the daylights out of Rogers, Bell, and Telus. In 2012 the Canadian government plans to auction off wireless spectrum in the 700 Mhz space. According to The Globe And Mail, this is valuable spectrum for this simple reason:
And the next government auction – for the highly valuable 700 megahertz frequency, which travels farther and more easily penetrates buildings – is being likened to the sale of prime beach front property.
Here’s the part that scares Canada’s telecommunication oligopoly. Canada’s Industry Minister had this to say to The Toronto Star:
“I think with the new entrants there has been downward pressure on prices. That’s a positive trend and we are hoping that that continues,” he said after speaking at an international communications conference.
Even so Canadians still pay some of the highest cellphone rates in the world, despite the entry of new players following a 2008 auction.
Because of that, Clement told reporters, Canadians are not so much concerned about who provides the services as long as it cost less. “They are less concerned about the means to an end than the end itself. And quite frankly I agree with them,” he said.
Usually, I’m not a big fan of the Conservative Party of Canada who are currently running the show in Canada, but Clement has a point. I don’t care who owns my wireless company. I want the best quality service available at the lowest price possible. The “big three” here in Canada show no interest in providing the latter half of that. So lets let in some companies that will. If they happen to be owned by non-Canadians, so be it. If that happened, the average Canadian consumer would benefit.
So bring on the auction! Let’s invite T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2, and Orange to the party. If any of them grab some spectrum and set up shop in Canada, you’ll see lower prices in a big hurry. Why? The “big three” won’t have any choice if they want to keep customers over the long term.
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This entry was posted on November 22, 2010 at 9:08 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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Canada Plans More Wireless Spectrum Auctions…. Foreign Ownership Is On The Table
Here’s something that will scare the daylights out of Rogers, Bell, and Telus. In 2012 the Canadian government plans to auction off wireless spectrum in the 700 Mhz space. According to The Globe And Mail, this is valuable spectrum for this simple reason:
And the next government auction – for the highly valuable 700 megahertz frequency, which travels farther and more easily penetrates buildings – is being likened to the sale of prime beach front property.
Here’s the part that scares Canada’s telecommunication oligopoly. Canada’s Industry Minister had this to say to The Toronto Star:
“I think with the new entrants there has been downward pressure on prices. That’s a positive trend and we are hoping that that continues,” he said after speaking at an international communications conference.
Even so Canadians still pay some of the highest cellphone rates in the world, despite the entry of new players following a 2008 auction.
Because of that, Clement told reporters, Canadians are not so much concerned about who provides the services as long as it cost less. “They are less concerned about the means to an end than the end itself. And quite frankly I agree with them,” he said.
Usually, I’m not a big fan of the Conservative Party of Canada who are currently running the show in Canada, but Clement has a point. I don’t care who owns my wireless company. I want the best quality service available at the lowest price possible. The “big three” here in Canada show no interest in providing the latter half of that. So lets let in some companies that will. If they happen to be owned by non-Canadians, so be it. If that happened, the average Canadian consumer would benefit.
So bring on the auction! Let’s invite T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2, and Orange to the party. If any of them grab some spectrum and set up shop in Canada, you’ll see lower prices in a big hurry. Why? The “big three” won’t have any choice if they want to keep customers over the long term.
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This entry was posted on November 22, 2010 at 9:08 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.