Set up Crown firm to block Verizon: union
CEP represents thousands of Bell workers
A major union is calling on the federal government to set up a Crown corporation that would be the country’s fourth major wireless carrier called “Canada Wireless” to potentially keep U.S. giant telecom Verizon from coming into the domestic cellphone market.
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada is also calling for Ottawa to rescind what it perceives as advantages for Verizon Wireless, which has expressed interest in entering the Canadian market.
The union has thousands of members at BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada, one of Canada’s largest wireless carriers and a leading force behind a highprofile campaign to get the Conserfvative government to change its telecom policy.
“To get out of a crisis, it’s important for a government to be able to think ‘ outside the box’ and setting up a public telco company would be a smart way to do just that,” union president Dave Coles said.
“If the government is intent on providing consumers with a fourth major carrier in each market, it should acquire one of the struggling small telcos, reserve some of the available 700-megahertz spectrum for public use and establish ‘Canada Wireless’ as a Crown corporation,” Coles said.
The Conservative government has shown no interest in changing its policy of more competition in the wireless industry and launched a website on Friday aimed at winning over consumers.
“We’re putting consumers first and standing up for choice in Canada’s wireless industry — are you with us?” the website asks.
The government website said it has a policy of “procompetition” and noted that since 2008 the average cost of wireless services for Canadians has decreased by nearly 20 per cent.
Telecom analyst Troy Crandall called the public duelling “a bit ridiculous.”
“I don’t know who’s worse — the telecom companies or the government,” said Crandall, of investment firm MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier in Montreal.