Wirelessnorth.ca

Yesterday the CRTC blocked Globalive from becoming Canada’s next national new wireless Carrier. This 14 months and 450 billion million dollars after this same government of ours (in this case Industry Canada) took Globalive’s money, approved their ownership structure and welcomed the new entrant to the industry.

Ironically, it was Telus who explains this decision the best: “CRTC makes the only Globalive decision it could“. The addendum to which would be “…after we ourselves, in a pique of legal jackassery, vigorously lodged the very official complaint thus forcing CRTC to abide to the letter of their antiquated and anti-competitive governing act despite it’s obvious contraction of the expressed policy of the Canadian government and people in this case.”

But don’t blame the incumbents. You know, other new entrants were equally pissed if/that Globalive would be seen to be receiving special treatment. The fact is that the Canadian capital markets are too small. All the other entrants (and even the incumbents in the past) have struggled mightily to build out their infrastructure while meeting the ownership requirements of last century’s Canada Telcom Act.

The real culprit here is our own bumbling goverment (Governments plural really) for a decade now, who have failed to reform or de-regulate foreign ownership, and who’ve failed modernize Canada’s regulatory governance in any coherent way to advance Canada in the digital economy.

Tony Clement, we’re looking at you.