TORONTO – New players in the Canadian wireless space say they’re happy with how things are going so far, but they admit it’s still very early days yet.
Two of the newest entrants spoke during a panel discussion at the Canadian Telecom Summit here on Wednesday afternoon. Both Wind Mobile Canada CEO Ken Campbell and Mobilicity president and CEO Dave Dobbin said their wireless service launches have been going as planned. Wind Mobile recently announced service availability in its fifth urban market – Vancouver – while Mobilicity launched service in its very first market – Toronto – only three weeks ago.
In an interview, Wind Mobile’s Campbell told Cartt.ca the next stage for his company is to launch in secondary markets, as it continues to invest in the build-out of its network.
“We’re going to pace ourselves and ensure that we stick to our plan, and that we get penetration in the markets that we want,” Campbell told Cartt.ca. “But we’ve got a long road ahead.”
Campbell said he couldn’t divulge subscriber numbers at this point. “But I can say that every month is getting stronger, and every month is getting better, and it’s accelerating,” he said.
During the panel session, Mobilicity’s Dobbin said he is excited by the progress the overall Canadian wireless industry has made during the last 12 months.
As a result of the AWS spectrum auction of 2008 and the new wireless service launches that have followed in the last few months, “the Canadian consumer has seen benefits that they haven’t since the mid-1990s,” Dobbin said.
“Competition is bringing about positive change. The system access fee is gone, for new customers at least. That’s a great thing. Data pricing has dropped. That’s a great thing. Things like unlimited access plans are in market, and that’s great for consumers,” Dobbin said.
However, both Dobbin and Campbell said they and other new entrants have had their share of difficulties when it has come to negotiating agreements with the incumbents for infrastructure sharing.
As an example, Campbell said tower sharing is minimal today. “Despite the efforts that have taken place for over a year, and despite the suggestion that everybody is out there co-operating, really the results speak for themselves,” Campbell said.
Campbell went on to say that Wind Mobile understands there’s not a lot of incentive for the incumbents to share their towers.
“I think, frankly, it’s going to have to come down to the economics of it. And I don’t see a lot of incentive,” Campbell said. “Rogers doesn’t want to give us faster access to the market, and I’m sure neither does Bell or Telus. Until that day comes, I think it will be a very difficult policy to implement.”
The sole incumbent representative on the panel was John Boynton, executive vice-president of marketing for Rogers Communications. He said Rogers co-operates with new entrants on tower sharing where possible.
“There are sometimes complications with towers,” Boynton said. “Some towers are fully loaded already, and it’s not technically feasible to do (tower sharing).”
Naturally, the discussion turned to the issue of foreign ownership, given Industry Minister Tony Clement’s announcement earlier in the week regarding a new consultation process on the topic.
Dobbin said raising capital in Canada is very difficult, but his company managed to fund its own business last year “in the pit of the global recession.” He added that there is a wider pool of investors globally that have an appetite for wireless business right now.
“I think opening up (to foreign investment) is nothing but a good thing,” he said.
Invoking the memory of Ted Rogers, Boynton said if the telecom industry pioneer were alive today he would have used a word like “balderdash” to respond to the suggestion that the Canadian wireless industry needs foreign investors in order to prosper (even though, during the first half of its life, AT&T was a Rogers Wireless investor). Rogers took on hundreds of millions in debt to fund his company over a long period of time and took risks, Boynton said, something the company is still familiar with.
With more spectrum auctions expected soon, Dobbin said he would advocate implementing spectrum caps in any future auctions that take place, which is something that Wind favours as well.
“Spectrum is a non-renewable resource. God is not making any more,” Dobbin said. “When you look at the vast amounts of spectrum that are lying fallow, that have been – to use Ken’s term, and I like it, by the way – ‘hoovered up’ by the incumbents, I think in the next spectrum auction we should seriously, as a country, look to limit the amount of spectrum that any one company should have.”
Taking the opposite view, Boynton said Rogers’ position is “you don’t make the weak strong by making the stronger weak".
“I think the new entrants are now here, and it’s up to them to survive", Boynton added. "I think the days of getting protected or favoured treatment are over. Now it’s time to compete. Let’s get going.”
