TORONTO – Tony Lacavera said he would have been happy to just ignore the “ridiculous” campaign waged by Canada’s incumbents about the supposed unfairness of the government’s 700 MHz auction rules.
That changed, however, once the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association joined the fray with messaging supporting the incumbents arguments.
In a post on Wind Mobile’s blog Tuesday, Lacavera weighed in with his own take on what competition from a U.S. carrier might mean for Canada’s wireless industry.
“I decided to correct the gross misrepresentations that they’re making in the marketplace,” said Lacavera.
Wind Mobile, along with Public Mobile and Mobilicity, withdrew their membership from the CWTA earlier this year, claiming the association no longer represented the industry’s interests as a whole and was biased in favour of the big three telcos.
“As the bombardment of advertisements from the Big Three continues, it’s important to recognize the noise for what it is: a desperate stand by the Big Three to protect their cozy and highly-profitable wireless market oligopoly,” wrote Lacavera.
In a phone interview with Cartt.ca, the Wind Mobile CEO said he finds it ironic that the incumbents began calling the government’s spectrum auction rules unfair only after news emerged that U.S. giant was looking to gain a foothold in Canada’s wireless market through a potential buyout of Wind Mobile.
“It’s a bit rich to say that it’s unfair when they’ve had this enormous swath of spectrum given to them for free over the last 30 years,” said Lacavera, adding that “When the 700 policy came out a year ago, the incumbents said…it was well thought-out, well-considered.
“They’ve reversed their position completely now.”
While Lacavera said he was initially disappointed with the government’s policy, he agrees that overall it has been “successful” – and has been sufficiently reviewed to justify having no further requests granted for hearings into the 700 MHz spectrum auction rules.
Lacavera said he could not comment on whether Wind will be bidding for any 700 MHz spectrum, adding that the “rules are very clear and very specific with respect to 700 disclosure. Unfortunately I can’t comment on anything to do with our plans at this point.”
(Ed note: Technically speaking, only those parties that are actually participating in the auction are prohibited from communicating any details related to their application to the media, according to clarification responses about auction guidelines posted on Industry Canada’s website. The list of applicants will be published only after the September 17 submission deadline.)
Instead of adopting a defensive, protectionist stance, Lacavera suggested that incumbents like Bell would be better off using their considerable finances to expand and invest in the “Netflixes of the world” or other growth media assets.
According to Lacavera, Bell missed an opportunity to expand into the U.S. in 2008-09, when the recession would have placed valuations for certain U.S. media assets at a decades-old-low, by focussing instead on acquiring CTV’s assets in 2010.
“There was an opportunity to buy some great growth assets in America in 2008, 2009 2010 at very deeply discounted prices,” said Lacavera. “I was very vocal when Bell acquired CTV, saying ‘Why is our leading telecommunications company buying a legacy media asset?’ That’s a management decision that was entirely within BCE’s control. It had nothing to do with the government, nothing to do with Verizon, nothing to do with Wind or anything.”
“I don’t know what else to say” said Lacavera. “They made that choice.”
