TORONTO – Three of Canada’s smaller mobile phone carriers have jointly announced they’re withdrawing from the industry’s main lobby group, claiming it’s biased against their interests in favour of their main rivals.
Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity accuse the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association of consistently taking positions that favour Canada’s three older, bigger carriers.
The trio of privately owned carriers says the association promised to be a voice for all its members but has largely been an advocate for Rogers, Bell and Telus .
“When we were first approached by the CWTA, we were promised clear and fair representation on issues of true industry alignment,” said Simon Lockie, Wind Mobile’s chief regulatory officer.
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“But despite making our objections and concerns abundantly clear on numerous occasions, the CWTA has repeatedly failed to honour this promise, leaving us no alternative but to withdraw.”
Public Mobile and Mobilicity made similar complaints in the same release.
“We feel that there is no point in being a part of an association that is supposed to represent the entire telecom industry, but really only serves as an advocacy group for the big three,” said Gary Wong, Director of Legal Affairs for Mobilicity.
Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity emerged after the Canadian government moved to increase competition in 2008 when it reserved some wireless spectrum for new entrants.
The companies coming out together to announce their withdrawal from the CWTA showed strength in numbers.
Boron noted that although there wasn’t one catalyst that led the new entrants to withdraw, the companies had shared their frustrations with the CWTA over the years.
“We believe it was more impactful and sent a clear message if the three new entrants were able to do this jointly in a cooperative fashion,” said Boron.
Ottawa is preparing to hold another auction of spectrum that will allow carriers to build faster networks that will cover more area.
The new entrants have not yet confirmed if they will participate in the spectrum auction; however, Boron told Global News, “It’s something that we are keeping our options open to.”
Lockie and Wong were not able to comment on whether they would participate in the spectrum auction.
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