Globalive Wireless (a.k.a. Wind Mobile) is good to go – the company, stopped in its tracks by the CRTC earlier this fall, was given the green light by Industry Minister Tony Clement, who decided last week that the new mobile service provider is, in fact, operating within Canada’s foreign-ownership rules.
The situation begs a number of questions: Was Clement’s decision the right one? If so, what does that say about the CRTC? The commission decided that Globalive was too heavily controlled by foreign investors, and here comes the Industry Minister saying otherwise. Is the CRTC’s clout as a telecom-industry regulator somehow diminished as a result? And now that Globalive will be allowed to compete against the likes of Rogers, Bell and Telus for wireless customers, what does the market have in store for end users and business telecom managers?
We asked around and received insightful answers. Our respondents: Roberta Fox, head of
Fox Group Consulting, Carmi Levy, an independent IT industry analyst, Joe Greene from JAG Communications, and Jon Arnold from
J Arnold & Associates.
Was Clement’s decision the right one?Fox: “It was the right decision. The government should be liberalizing Canadian policies related to investment, particularly since we are challenged to get the capital required to build out industries such as telecommunications.”
Levy: “Allowing Globalive... was absolutely the right decision to make. When the CRTC ruled in October that Globalive was ineligible to operate because it failed to meet Canadian ownership and leadership standards, it ran directly counter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s repeated contentions in recent months that Canada is open to foreign investment, and the government had no intention of throwing up roadblocks or other restrictions.”
