The IT Nerd

Remember that case where Wind Mobile was ruled not to be Canadian enough and then the Canadian Government appealed the decision. Well, the decision has been announced and guess what? They’re Canadian enough:

The judges wrote that Globalive was a “a Canadian owned and controlled company” and upheld cabinet’s decision to allow it to operate.

Ever since a federal regulator blocked Globalive from launching cellular brand Wind Mobile in October of 2009, the company has been on a roller-coaster ride to prove its compliance with Canada’s strict foreign ownership restrictions. The process has involved endless court battles, thrown the sector into a period of prolonged uncertainty, and involved everyone from Canada’s biggest wireless companies to the federal cabinet. Wednesday’s court ruling appears to resolve that confusion.

It has also done much to resolve an awkward problem for the federal government, which was accused of trying to alter Canada’s foreign-ownership laws by decree, outside Parliament, when it intervened on Globalive’s behalf.

Of course, all is not well in the universe. Public Mobile is appealing the decision all the way to Supreme Court Of Canada:

But for Public Mobile, a wireless rival to Globalive’s Wind Mobile cellular brand, clarity will come only when the Supreme Court of Canada rules on the matter – or rejects Public Mobile’s attempt late Wednesday to seek leave to appeal to the highest court.

“I challenge anyone to crisply articulate for me what the current situation actually is,” said Bob Boron, chief regulatory officer for Public Mobile.

So the circus continues. One can only hope that the Supreme Court doesn’t hear this appeal. Or the Canadian Government does the right thing and let anyone who wants to compete into the market regardless of who owns them.

This entry was posted on June 10, 2011 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Lawsuit, Wind Mobile. 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.