There are no loopholes in the government’s wireless telecom ownership and auction rules and policies, despite the objections raised by dominant carriers Rogers, Bell and Telus.
That was federal Industry minister James Moore message during an exclusive interview with IT World Canada editor Howard Solomon. Moore has been making the media rounds to defend the government’s telecom policy in the wake of a public relations offensive by the big three Canadian carriers, who object to what they term as an unfair playing-field created by the government that favours U.S. teleco Verizon, which is considering entering the Canadian market.
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“The rules were arrived at with a great deal of consultation with industry, consumer groups across the country, and we’re moving forward,” Moore said. “The incumbent big three, by the way, were originally quite comfortable with our policies (announced March 7), they said good things about it. It’s only because in May Verizon made noises about exploring coming into the Canadian marketplace that the incumbents decided to put out a big joint effort to stop Verizon from coming into Canada. That’s fine, that’s a business decision by them to look out for what’s in the best interest of their business. Our obligation is bigger than that- to look out for the best interest of Canadians and to fight for Canadian consumers by providing more choice and competition.”
Click here to read the full interview: Moore makes it clear: Auction rules are set