Tony Clement hints at overturn of CRTC – Wind Mobile decision
Late last week, Minister of Industry Tony Clement made some comments that could be considered disconcerting to the incumbent wireless carriers in Canada, regarding the CRTC’s recent decision to block Globalive’s Wind Mobile wireless from launching in Canada…
“We do have the power through an order of council in cabinet to amend or vary the decision of the CRTC… The government’s policy is designed to increase competitiveness in the wireless space, and that is important for Canadian consumers because it increases choice, it increases quality and it reduces cost. [from The Canadian Press]”
Though the quote can’t be considered anything more than suggestive of Industry Canada’s stance, it comes as a glimmer of hope to Canadians. When Bell and Telus launched their high speed network, there was much (ill placed) hope that it would mean competition between the incumbents. Unfortunately, despite being a technical coup for the joint project, it merely meant Bell and Telus more or less sharing identical price structures with Rogers HSPA network.
Hardly competition on any level. Let’s hope the ads recently launched by Wind Mobile will become something more than biting satire of the current state of affairs in Canada’s wireless marketplace.
