Industry Canada has intervened in the tower sharing negotiations, issuing some clarifications on the rules of engagement between the new mobile wireless carriers and incumbents.
From the discussion on the Industry Canada website, it appears that some of the incumbents were not negotiating with the generosity of spirit that was in keeping with the intent of the department. As an example, at least one of the carriers had been asking new entrants to sign an onerous non-disclosure agreement in advance of getting any information – and asked for the discussions to be exclusive as a condition of the NDA, even in advance of providing any information.
If some of the parties were concerned that Industry Canada lacked reasonable enforcement tools, the new direction makes it clear that the department is armed with a refined set of proportionate responses to bad behaviour:
Where a licensee is found to be in non-compliance with the conditions of licence for antenna tower and site sharing, the Department may consider the suspension or revocation, in whole or in part, of the Licensee’s radio and/or spectrum licences associated with the site where the breach of licence occurred.
Some may have thought that there is no way that Industry Canada would revoke an entire national license over bad faith negotiations. But targeting on a site by site basis has a certain biblical measure of proportionality.
The leaders of Dave Wireless, Globalive and Public Mobile will all be appearing on June 17 at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto. Have you registered yet?
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