CRTC blocks Canada's WIND from launching over ownership concerns
Globalive, which has recently been ramping up to launch a national Canadian phone service under the WIND brand using spectrum won in last year's auction, has been dealt a hell of a blow by the CRTC this week. The organization -- essentially the northern equivalent of the FCC -- has strict rules demanding that Canadian wireless networks be Canadian-owned, and an investigation of WIND's structure has apparently raised enough concern to cause it to call off the service's launch. Egypt's Orascom Telecom (which, strangely, also runs North Korea's Koryolink) owns some 65.1 percent of the operation and apparently "holds the overwhelming majority of the outstanding debt" for which Globalive is responsible, so yeah, we can see how that might not qualify as "Canadian-owned." For its part, Globalive says that it's "extremely disappointed" in the decision and "will be evaluating [its] options on how to proceed," but in all likelihood, that's going to have to mean cashing out a good chunk of Orascom if it's serious about making this happen.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - CRTC decision
Read - WIND response
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cactus @ Oct 30th 2009 10:18AM
Seeing the 3-year contracts and inflated monthly plans our northern neighbors have to deal with, I think a lot of them wouldn't mind even if it turned out this company was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Al Qaeda... as long as it shakes things up in the industry...
Schmuck @ Oct 30th 2009 9:52PM
What a joke, the CRTC has to die, it has done nothing remotely positive for 500 years or so, we arent getting net nutrality, our tv sucks, and now this. WE NEED COMPETITION UP HERE, I do not care who owns it, I do not care if the man in the moon is the one running a new cell phone company as long as we get it. We are being held back, and it has to end
Cameron @ Oct 31st 2009 11:40AM
Really?
Because, you know, I'm from the US, and found the plans to be infinitely better. And just for the record: Fido, Rogers, Telus, and Bell (four), is about comparable to Verizon, Sprint, ATT and TMo (four) for a country one tenth the size. Plus the MVNOs are much better.
I pay $22 (incl fees) month without a contract in Canada for what I paid $50-60 (varied, always went over) in the US on a two year contract.
That said, we don't have anything similar to MetroPCS or Cricket up here, which is a shame, except MetroPCS sucks (good on paper though!)