Bell Joins Rogers And Telus In Not Wanting Verizon In Canada

It’s official. All three members of the Canadian cell phone oligopoly have balked at the potential of Verizon entering Canada. The Toronto Star is reporting that Bell corporate parent BCE had this to say:

BCE said the government’s decision to prevent Canada’s largest phone companies from buying smaller rivals will allow New York-based Verizon to acquire those businesses at “cut-rate prices.” Other policies that will unfairly benefit Verizon include the decision to reserve airwaves for new entrants and rules that force incumbents to offer up their networks for use by competitors, Montreal-based BCE said.

“Our federal government is unintentionally underwriting the success of U.S. companies in Canada,” BCE Chief Executive Officer George Cope said in a statement. The company also had a two-page advertisement in the Globe and Mail newspaper today. “We ask that Ottawa allow Canadian wireless companies a fair chance to compete by closing these loopholes.”

I’m pretty sure that Canadian cell phone users see it something like this: The Canadian Government wants competition in the cell phone marketplace to help to lower prices which are far too high. And the big three telcos don’t like it. You can’t please everyone when you’re trying to make a marketplace competitive. Hopefully the Canadian Government stands its ground if Verizon enters the marketplace as Canadian cell phone users desperately need relief from the high prices that they pay.

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