A WACKY LONG WEEKEND of published and advertised wireless truths, half-truths, information and disinformation has likely moved the public opinion needle on Verizon’s potential entry into Canada not at all.
With the federal government seeming to have said its final word on the matter last week – noting it will stick by the screwy rules it has set up (rather than full, open, foreign investment in Canadian telecom) to govern the Canadian wireless market – the incumbent wireless companies, as well as their supporters and detractors, went into full froth over the August Civic Holiday weekend.
On Friday there was a report from the Globe and Mail that Rogers might act as financier (but not owner) behind a private equity play for Wind Canada. Despite the whinging of many, it’s hard to see how this violates the Industry Canada spectrum transfer rules, which look to keep Rogers, Bell or Telus from getting their profitable hands on the struggling Wind and all-but-bankrupt Mobilicity. If Rogers is merely putting up some of the cash for Wind and not taking an ownership position (and deal details were not in the story), it doesn’t seem the federal government could truly interfere. It’s difficult to believe the Prime Minster would really begin telling people where they can and can’t find Canadian money for their projects.
One wonders if the PR assault, the Telus court case and leaked defensive strategies will affect another one of the intended targets: the Verizon board of directors. Will they look at this donnybrook when they meet this week to decide what to do, as has been reported, see the relatively small size of the opportunity here and say “it’s not worth the trouble”? The federal government seems to have pulled out all the stops to invite them in while the Canadian incumbents have done the same to keep Verizon out of the party. Is it worth it for Verizon, especially since it will not be able to bring its IPTV FiOS service along for bundling, too (since our broadcasting regs still do not allow for foreign control of BDU services).
Heck, we were alerted by a Twitter follower early Saturday morning of our inclusion in a two-page Bell ad spread in the National Post which counts us as concerned Canadians decrying Verizon’s entry into the Canadian market. Just to be clear, Verizon coming here could be a good thing, but allowing it to enter and be able to buy two blocks of 700 MHz spectrum nationwide thanks to the skewed rules set up to benefit regional independents, while altering the rules of the AWS auction well after the fact, is unfair. While we really don’t think it will cause any dramatic price shifts in the long term (prices at Home Depot and Rona, to cite another U.S. vs. Canadian retail example, are pretty much the same) we will concede that roaming into the States without additional charges would be a real draw, if that happened, if Verizon comes. If, if, if…
From what I can glean from reading thousands of words (from published stories and the comments under them), fishing around Twitter and just talking to people over the weekend, I am convinced what I tweeted Friday is true (sorry for the language, below).
Canadians understand that Verizon is a giant and they get that the federal government has done something abnormal to make it worthwhile for the big U.S. wireless company to look at Canada as a potential growth area. They also get that this is unfair to our big Canadian wireless companies – and they just do not care. Despite what Telus CEO Darren Entwistle thinks about the industry doing a “crap” job at educating Canadians (which is what he told the editorial boards of the National Post and Globe and Mail) about the investment put into the wireless business here and how rates are not as bad as many assume, there is no amount of “education” that is going to get the majority of regular Canadian consumers onside with the big three. For the most part, they do not want to hear it.
People want only to pay less and many feel certain they are getting ripped off by either Rogers, Bell or Telus (years of “system access fees” and “activation fees”, travel roaming horror stories and byzantine wireless contracts, even though they’re all now gone for the most part, does that to people). Their minds are not going to be changed by a few weeks worth of a public relations blitz.
It seems Canadians are thinking: “Verizon is coming to the market subsidized by taxpayers? So. Is my bill going to go down? The big three have invested tens of billions of dollars building excellent wireless networks to all corners of the country and it’s unfair that a company as big as Verizon can ride on those networks without building? So. Is my bill going to go down? Jobs will be lost and investment in Canadian networks will drop. So. Is my bill going to go down?”
NOT SINCE THE RADIO has a piece of technology, the smartphone – more especially, the broadband network it rides on – been so indispensable to living a modern life. The home phone? It was basic and cheap and stuck to your house and great for voice. A transformation, but not to the extent of our mobile devices. The television – and later, the cable connection? Great for news and entertainment, but you could – and can – live a happy, engaged life without it.
But the Internet and particularly broadband connected smartphones are becoming our Everything. My whole family is in mine via the camera, texting and Facebook connections. My whole job is in there too. It’s also my bank, my boarding pass, and will soon be my wallet and identification, too – on top of also being my radio, phone and television. So when it breaks or gets too expensive, we (and I’m using the collective “we” here) FREAK! We are angry that our Everything is a problem and how can we function without a working, cheap, Everything?
What’s tough to fathom for most, too, is the network portion itself. It’s not something we can hold or see or point to (except the towers). The industry will never, ever be able to explain the economics of telecom networks to consumers or the technical specs of those networks. It's a service, it’s highly complex and we all have to trust it’s modern, fast and decently priced. We have to have faith our service providers are doing their level best providing great service and not gouging us – and many Canadians simply don’t believe it – nor will they ever believe it. “We’re getting screwed,” has become cynical dogma for too many.
And here’s the kicker, Verizon uses the same technology and operates under the same economic assumptions as do the Canadian incumbents – and it takes as many customer service lumps Stateside as do our companies.
Should Verizon choose to come north? Not much will change (although Bell and Telus would likely again then look to merge). Canadians will still have access to some of the best networks anywhere in the world at prices we wish were lower, in order for that little slab of metal, glass and plastic to be our Everything.
