I was wondering when another member of the big three telcos would join Telus in suing the Canadian Government (in fact the’ve done it twice). Today The Globe And Mail is reporting that BCE who is the parent company of Bell (and owner of The Globe And Mail by the way) is suing over the Government’s wireless policy:
The legal challenge stems from a government decision in March to expand and extend obligations for incumbent carriers to provide roaming and tower-sharing to new entrants. Previously, the rules included some roaming measures to help new carriers for five years. But now the rules say those roaming provisions will continue indefinitely, and include new measures to reduce the timelines for carriers to seek arbitration when disputes arise.
BCE argues that the federal government cannot retroactively change conditions of wireless licences it bought years ago.
BCE’s Aug. 30 application for judicial review of the wireless policy comes as the Big Three carriers wage a public-relations battle against government efforts to attract new entrants to the wireless market.
My gut feeling on this is that these lawsuits are out there to ensure that nothing changes the status quo so that even if competition comes in, the price of entry will be so high that it won’t be worth doing. Having said that, I can see why the Government would want rules like this. But I think the better way to go is less legislation via dropping the sort of restrictions that keep foreign companies out. Then do everything possible to get them into to the country so that they can set up shop and influence prices that way. Now if that were to happen, the big three would likely still complain loudly, but you would likely not see these sorts of lawsuits being filed.
Let’s see if Rogers, joins in on the legal action.
Related
This entry was posted on September 9, 2013 at 7:42 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Bell, 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.
Bell Sues Feds Over Wireless Policy
I was wondering when another member of the big three telcos would join Telus in suing the Canadian Government (in fact the’ve done it twice). Today The Globe And Mail is reporting that BCE who is the parent company of Bell (and owner of The Globe And Mail by the way) is suing over the Government’s wireless policy:
The legal challenge stems from a government decision in March to expand and extend obligations for incumbent carriers to provide roaming and tower-sharing to new entrants. Previously, the rules included some roaming measures to help new carriers for five years. But now the rules say those roaming provisions will continue indefinitely, and include new measures to reduce the timelines for carriers to seek arbitration when disputes arise.
BCE argues that the federal government cannot retroactively change conditions of wireless licences it bought years ago.
BCE’s Aug. 30 application for judicial review of the wireless policy comes as the Big Three carriers wage a public-relations battle against government efforts to attract new entrants to the wireless market.
My gut feeling on this is that these lawsuits are out there to ensure that nothing changes the status quo so that even if competition comes in, the price of entry will be so high that it won’t be worth doing. Having said that, I can see why the Government would want rules like this. But I think the better way to go is less legislation via dropping the sort of restrictions that keep foreign companies out. Then do everything possible to get them into to the country so that they can set up shop and influence prices that way. Now if that were to happen, the big three would likely still complain loudly, but you would likely not see these sorts of lawsuits being filed.
Let’s see if Rogers, joins in on the legal action.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on September 9, 2013 at 7:42 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Bell, 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.