Never a guy to hide his feelings, Anthony Lacavera who is the CEO of Wind Mobile has posted a blog entry on the company blog that makes some very pointed remarks towards the big three and their attempts to sway the opinions of the Canadian Government and the public at large.
The CWTA claims that if Verizon were to enter the Canadian market in the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction, Canadian firms would be “blocked from bidding on 50% of our own country’s assets.” This assumes that the Big Three are the only “Canadian firms” – they’d like to be but that is precisely would the policy is designed to prevent. Instead, the auction will be an open and competitive process with national and regional carriers bidding fiercely at every stage.
In fact, when the policy first came out, we were very disappointed. In our view, the policy (still) virtually guarantees that the Big Three, who already have almost all the spectrum in this country (most of which was given to them by the government for free), will acquire 75% of the prime spectrum available.
The truth is the auction structure for 700MHz is not unfair to the Big Three at all. Perhaps Bell, TELUS and Rogers have lost some perspective after decades of getting handouts and protections from the Canadian people. It’s understandable, I suppose. After all, in the early days of cellphones and wireless technology the government simply gave them bucketloads of Canadian spectrum for free. If that is their baseline for what’s “fair”, then it’s not hard to understand why the Big Three feel so hard done by when they have to actively compete.
The CWTA did get one thing right, though. As Canadians we do indeed “instinctively know unfairness when we see it.” For many Canadians, they see it every month when they open up a cellular phone bill from one of the Big Three.
Ouch. That hurts. He also has something to say about how the Canadian Government has handled this file:
In particular, we should all commend Minister Moore and the Prime Minister for their unflinching commitment to Canadian consumers in the face of this aggressive and dishonest campaign led by Bell and TELUS.
At least he likes somebody.
Lacavera has always been very outspoken in terms of how the wireless market works in Canada, and typically has shared his views with anyone who will listen to him. Thus this post doesn’t come as a great shock to me. It’s likely to act as a lightning rod for those who want Verizon in Canada or change in the behavior of the big three.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
This entry was posted on August 28, 2013 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, Wind Mobile, 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.
Wind Mobile CEO Takes Shots At Big Three Via Blog Post
Never a guy to hide his feelings, Anthony Lacavera who is the CEO of Wind Mobile has posted a blog entry on the company blog that makes some very pointed remarks towards the big three and their attempts to sway the opinions of the Canadian Government and the public at large.
The CWTA claims that if Verizon were to enter the Canadian market in the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction, Canadian firms would be “blocked from bidding on 50% of our own country’s assets.” This assumes that the Big Three are the only “Canadian firms” – they’d like to be but that is precisely would the policy is designed to prevent. Instead, the auction will be an open and competitive process with national and regional carriers bidding fiercely at every stage.
In fact, when the policy first came out, we were very disappointed. In our view, the policy (still) virtually guarantees that the Big Three, who already have almost all the spectrum in this country (most of which was given to them by the government for free), will acquire 75% of the prime spectrum available.
The truth is the auction structure for 700MHz is not unfair to the Big Three at all. Perhaps Bell, TELUS and Rogers have lost some perspective after decades of getting handouts and protections from the Canadian people. It’s understandable, I suppose. After all, in the early days of cellphones and wireless technology the government simply gave them bucketloads of Canadian spectrum for free. If that is their baseline for what’s “fair”, then it’s not hard to understand why the Big Three feel so hard done by when they have to actively compete.
The CWTA did get one thing right, though. As Canadians we do indeed “instinctively know unfairness when we see it.” For many Canadians, they see it every month when they open up a cellular phone bill from one of the Big Three.
Ouch. That hurts. He also has something to say about how the Canadian Government has handled this file:
In particular, we should all commend Minister Moore and the Prime Minister for their unflinching commitment to Canadian consumers in the face of this aggressive and dishonest campaign led by Bell and TELUS.
At least he likes somebody.
Lacavera has always been very outspoken in terms of how the wireless market works in Canada, and typically has shared his views with anyone who will listen to him. Thus this post doesn’t come as a great shock to me. It’s likely to act as a lightning rod for those who want Verizon in Canada or change in the behavior of the big three.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on August 28, 2013 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, Wind Mobile, 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.