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TELUS urges Industry Minister “to proceed with caution” regarding the Globalive decision
Today was the deadline for the telecom players to submit their thoughts to Industry Minister Tony Clement regarding the CRTC’s decision that stated Globalive doesn’t meet Canadian ownership rules… essentially stalling their launch plans in offering Canadians a new national choice in wireless.
TELUS sent out a press release today and Michael Hennessy, TELUS senior VP of Regulatory and Government Affairs boldly said “Globalive’s ownership structure is simply not compliant with our country’s laws and the CRTC made the only decision it could under Canadian law… If the Government overturns the CRTC decision, it would render meaningless Canada’s laws on foreign ownership not just for wireless firms, but also for broadcasters, media, cable companies and wireline telecommunications firms that are governed by the same regulations.”
Hennessy continued “If our government decides to begin altering foreign ownership restrictions in the communications industry it should do so in a thoughtful and considered manner that is fair to all companies operating under the current rules. It would be wrong to allow the one foreign controlled firm that did not play by the rules to drive the terms and timelines for such massive changes to our laws.”
The release stated that he “urged Minister Clement to proceed with caution when considering the implications of the Globalive decision.”
Here’s the letter that TELUS sent to Industry Minister Tony Clement:
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24 comments for “TELUS urges Industry Minister “to proceed with caution” regarding the Globalive decision”
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They will probably win but WindMobile will still happen in the future.
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OMG the only reason Telus is telling him to “proceed with caution” is because Telus doesn’t want to lower their prices. Canada desperately needs competition in the wireless industry!!!
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82% is owned by orascom?
Is that true?
Or are they just exaggerating?
w/e…
Telus is like:
“Blablablah… its bad for canada…”
Right… We all know you just want to keep charging absurd prices and keep up with the 3 year contracts…
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TNSF Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
82% is correct. Orascom owns 65% of the equity and over 90% of the debt. Combined it works out to approximately 82% of supplied capital coming from Orascom, a foreign company. And that is just the beginning of Orascom’s control…
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Serge Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Yes, Telus was just exaggerating. 82% is not correct.
Orascom holds a minority of Globalive’s voting shares, and all of its non-voting shares, which adds it up to 65% of its shares.
Separately, Orascom has a bunch of loans out to Globalive. The loans are, apparently, toothless — Orascom doesn’t get to dictate anything to Globalive under them, mainly because the CRTC insisted on it that way.
What Telus looks to have done is add up all of the above to try and come up with the 82%. How it becomes meaningful to combine all of that, I will never know. I have never seen this form of measurement before, and outside Telus press releases I do not expect we would be likely to: it mixes together various forms of relationship.
Is 82% a great soundbite? Absolutely. Meaningful? Not so much.
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I know we need wireless competition in Canada, but not at the expense of ownership in the company. We are already getting raped by America, you want the rest of the world in too? Lets keep Canada Canadian eh!
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Scott S Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
How exactly are we getting raped by the U.S.?
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Ralph Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
We are not being raped. In fact we owe our standard of living to the yanks. The USA is not our enemy like many would have you think.
He’s simply being Nationalistic (like Germany prior to WW II).
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*sigh*, I hope for a few things, 1) Wind launches quickly, i don’t particularly care about how they achieve this, if the incumbent carriers get their feelings ( or profits ) hurt boo hoo. 2) Wind will be everything they are promising and not just another carrier with very little to separate them from the rest.
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LAW IS LAW, WHY LET THEM IN IF THEY CANT PLAY BUY THE RULES, CANADA ASKED FOR THIS, SO DEAL WITH IT.
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Arshad Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Okay, firstly please don’t yell. There’s no need to be screaming about this. Secondly, please get your spelling right.
Now, “Law is law,” as you stated makes no sense anymore. It’s like having a union where it doesn’t belong. It used to work for a time when businesses operated with no respect for business ethics. We need wireless competition in Canada. Why should Orascom be charged for operating in Canada.
Every other country they are operating in is doing just fine. What sets Canada apart from the rest of the world in terms of wireless is what I don’t understand (except for the fact that currently the “All Canadian Providers” can rape us in every way possible and we have no say about it). If that is what it means to be a Canadian cellphone provider where the law was first introduced to HELP Canadians, then I think it’s time to update it because obviously it’s having a negative affect on Canadian wireless subscribers.
I don’t know about you guys but that’s where I stand with this so called foreign ownership law. The least they can do is state that foreign ownership is allowed in the wireless telecom industry if the Canadian government is looking for more competition. Either that or the Canadian government should provide more assistance for new Canadian wireless providers to launch. I don’t know how the Canadian government can expect a company to launch without providing sufficient financial assistance but then not allow foreign wireless telecom corporations helping out a new Canadian wireless provider to launch. I’d rather have someone like Orascom to operate in Canada rather than see one of the Big3 buy out WIND’s spectrum.
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Ralph Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
No one is questioning whether they should be able to break the rules when others have obided. The question is, did they? It seems to be unclear at this point since different bodies have come to different conclusions.
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Leetneo Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 3:37 am
If you don’t like it. Don’t “BUY” a phone from em…makes sence to me, if they have no subscribers then they dont make money..
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Mike Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 8:17 am
That would make sense if you had a choice, buy we don’t. And lets forget Koodoooo, Soloooo, Fido, Virgin, etc. I am talking about real-independent telcos….
The main issue is that Industry Canada messed up by letting them bid on spectrum in the first place. Now they are red-faced by the CRTC which arguably followed the laws exactly as it should.
I think the only sensible option is for the government to follow the 2006 recommendation and remove foreign ownership rules for wireless. It’s the only way this will make sense; otherwise deny them completely.
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Serge Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Seriously, the CRTC followed the laws exactly as it should? Not so much. Read the transcript of the hearing some rainy (or snowy) day and you’ll see what I mean. The Big 3 basically dictate to the CRTC how to write its decision, and every time they get asked a tough question or to get into specifics they change the subject. It’s like the bogus “82%” claim above: sounds great until you start to dig into what it actually means.
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Telus can say what they want. but in reality 6 out of 7 board members for wind are canadian. The ceo is Canadian all the 800 and growing employees are canadian, the people paying less phone bills are Canadian. I guess thats canadian enough for me. I really hope wind launches and bring a change in the monopoly played by the big 3.
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Anon Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 10:18 am
It doesn’t matter if you employees are Canadian if most of your equity and debt is under foreign ownership…
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Clement asked for input “over and above” anything that hadn’t already been submitted.
Nothing in this TELUS release is different from what they said at the hearings.
It’s not bad enough that the big 3 have the CRTC in their back pocket, now they feel they can dictate government policy as well.
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I don’t know economics but is it that big of a deal? If so then those countries with vodafone must be like getting rap3d…
Just sayin’
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Interesting that Telus repeat themselves…they are so concerned with WIND following the rules and guidelines yet they have no problem repeating themselves after Tony Clement made it clear – any info “above and beyond” what they have already complained about, I mean, stated.
They are so scared of WIND it’s kind of sad – what happened to their promise of great customer service – if they were as good as they think they are, they would not be so scared about a start-up? What else are they scared of? Is it because WIND is being honest and actually putting customers first and ahead of stakeholder demands?
How come you don’t here very much from Bell? – Probably because George Cope is focused on what he needs to do – continue fixing his company so that they Bell can be competitive and successful by offering great service and leading edge products.
Why is the CRTC not DEMANDING that Telus STOP laying people off (Over 3,000 in less than 2 years yet they just spent 28 million to buy Black’s?) – AND – continue moving thousands of CANADIAN jobs offshore to the Philippines and India?
WIND is trying to ADD good paying jobs to Canada, invest MILLIONS of dollars into Canada’s infrastructure because they WANT TO – AND not charge Canadians $6.95 to offset their costs – invest in Canadians, and bring more reasonable wireless prices to Canada…isn’t that enough?
Seriously CRTC – do your job and look out for the best interests of ALL Canadians – not the few that line your pockets!
Look at what FORD, GM and Chrysler did to Canada and Canadians…how many millions has the government invested to keep these companies alive? Have they not caused more harm to Canadians than WIND could ever do – it’s not like WIND is going to set up shop, add millions of people to their network, and then close up shop and go home – there are enough Wireless competitors and there is money to be made so I don’t think Canada will ever be without providers, however, if our governments cannot get their act together no one will want to invest in Canada.
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People seem to forget that there is the “letter” of the law and the “spirit” of the law. Just because a law can be read in a specific fashion doesn’t mean that it’s fair, just or in line with the aims of the original intent.
My question is what’s the negative impact of ignoring foreign ownership rules? I’m mean you can blather on about “rules is rules” , but the “rules” haven’t stopped Bell, Rogers and Telus from funneling jobs, taxation revenue and income taxes out of Canada. To add insult to injury our tax dollars have also been used to subsidize the infrastructure that Telecos “own”. So I repeat my question, in light the Teleco’s behavior; what’s the negative impact of ignoring foreign ownership rules?
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Time to remove the protectionism to these corporations. Let them feel the wrath of the customers they have ripped off for years. Let them suffer. Hemorrhage money, LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER. Time to take down the rotten system.
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I think people are being blinded by the need for competition here.
Yes, we need more wireless competition.
No, globallive should NOT have been allowed to start operations.
“Law is Law” is absolutely correct in this case. Yes, I believe GL should be allowed to operate in Canada; however, there are several other companies who took time and expense to apply for their licenses.
Honestly, if there were already 3 or 4 of those new companies on the go and Globallive wasn’t “the first” to get a license, this wouldn’t even be a discussion. We need to seperate our desire for more companies from the equation here and actually look at the law.
If the law need be changed, then it need be changed in a way that’s fair to all – and i’m not talking Bell, Rogers and Telus here. I’m talking about all the players who bought a part of the spectrum during the auction.
I don’t care what telus, rogers and bell are doing with their jobs this is specifically regarding a ruling under Canadian Law. It’s disappointing to see the government just fold and overturn a ruling that was correct in the first place. Globalive should have the same laws to abide by as every other player has.
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