Industry Minister Clement has overruled the CRTC and said that Globalive meets the requirements of the Telecom Act to begin operations.
This is not changing foreign ownership restrictions:
Mr. Clement said Friday he is satisfied the debt financing does not constitute foreign ownership and no changes would be required to the company’s organization.
As we suggested earlier, the Order in Council plays to the key difference in foreign ownership definitions in the Broadcast Act versus the Telecom Act. The Telecom Act – which is operative in this instance – is phrased in the double negative: A carrier cannot be controlled by non-Canadians.
That calls for a different standard – a different burden of proof than the positive Canadian control requirements of the Broadcast Act.
Significantly, the Industry Canada Backgrounder makes clear:
In varying the CRTC decision, the Government is not removing, reducing, bending or creating an exception to COC requirements in the telecommunication and broadcasting industries.
That's the best I've read in a while. The only question remains, how long will it be before Globalive sets up shop in the Province of Quebec. Here we have zero competition; Telus charges us what they want. If we don't like it, continue using smoke signals and messages in a bottle.
Sorry – Quebec is the one province that Globalive has no spectrum
That's for today. However, I'd love to be a bug in the carpet listening to the negotiations going on between Gloalive and Quebecor. Come April, we will probably see wireless internet rates drop across Canada, including Quebec. With such a competing international telecom player, things might look somewhat different sooner than anticipated.