Cable / Telecom News

Expensive spectrum leads to lower network investment, higher prices, say telecoms


TORONTO — The federal government’s spectrum allocation policies are the focus of the latest report from the C.D. Howe Institute’s telecommunications policy working group, which says the high cost of spectrum in Canada combined with regulatory impediments will negatively impact the rollout of 5G in the country. Citing an analysis by U.K. economist Pantelis Koutroumpis in 2020, who looked at the impact of spectrum allocation on mobile communications in Canada, spectrum prices in Canada are almost four times higher than the international average, says the telecom policy working group (which counts among its members executives from Canada’s largest telecom companies)....