TORONTO – One could get a sense (even via webcast) of the frustration Bell Canada and BCE CEO George Cope feels after a summer’s worth of wireless industry bickering.
Tensions between the big three wireless players, the federal government and Canadians in general have rarely been higher, thanks to some serious differences of opinion on wireless policy (we’re not going to link all the background we’ve done here, just search our web site for the word “Verizon”.)
It’s been a time-consuming, tiring few months featuring back and forth public relations campaigns to either battle against or support which would have (and could, still) enabled a large foreign wireless company to be treated like a small new entrant and be allowed to purchase twice the amount of spectrum in the upcoming 700 MHz wireless auction compared to the Canadian incumbents.
Now, those outsiders either must start fresh, or purchase a company with less than 10% market share, or they’re not allowed into the Canadian marketplace and Cope, speaking this morning at the BMO Capital Markets annual Media and Telecom Conference told attendees that the restrictions on non-Canadian ownership should go..
“Maybe it’s time to do a foreign ownership review and just get rid of the foreign ownership restrictions and just move on,” he told BMO telecom and media analyst Tim Casey. “We’re not worried about competing with anyone… Open it up then. Let’s go. But don’t open it up where someone has advantages in the marketplace over our shareholders, our debtholders or our employees.”
These regulatory changes and limitations make it tough for companies to raise capital in foreign markets as well, especially as the expected-to-be-expensive auction approaches. “The shifting sands of Canadian telecom policy… is really tough on international investors,” Cope added. “We’ve worked the last three to four years at BCE to re-establish our global following for our company. I think our ownership of our equity moved close to 30%. We’ve been in Europe a number of times – and it’s a little tricky to go there at the moment because quite frankly, it’s hard to say we know exactly what will happen next.”
What ever happens, Cope added he doesn’t believe BCE would ever be foreign owned anyway. “In most G20 nations, the incumbent telecom company remains domestic… This room can decide whether or not it thinks AT&T or Verizon could be foreign owned, ”`he added. “So, the same type of question is here. Within the telecom world, and sovereignty of nations and all those things, communications are a pretty important asset, I’d be surprised. It wouldn’t be my decision, I just think practically, investors would have to understand from a BCE perspective, it’s probably not likely, but we’re ready to compete with anyone in the marketplace.”
“We’re not afraid of competition, but practically speaking, and this is one personal opinion as a Canadian, I’m not so sure we’ll ever see Bell Canada (foreign) owned."
– Greg O'Brien
