Rogers and Telus slam Microcell over mandated site sharing proposal

Rogers Wireless Inc. says Microcell Telecommunications Inc.’s call for mandated tower site sharing at commercially reasonable costs is equal to getting a free ride. Ted Woodhead, director of government relations at Rogers Wireless, made the comments during a session on wireless legal framework and spectrum management at the Canadian Telecommunications Forum last month in Toronto. "Quite simply, what Microcell is asking for, when you strip away all the niceties of it, is to leverage the network investments of other carriers," Woodhead said during his presentation. "They have chosen for their own business purposes to plow $40 million, $60 million, whatever it is in sales and marketing in this quarter, and not pour that money into towers. So they want a free ride on our towers at some notional commercially reasonable rent. Unfortunately, Microcell’s plan offers no corresponding benefit to any other wireless carriers." Telus Mobility’s Ed Prior chimed in as well on the contentious issue, saying Microcell has contended that since it was the last one licensed all of the good tower locations were already taken. "It tugs at my heart strings until I remember certain things … and I would like to buy them a fishing pole. A fishing pole because of that old adage: ‘Give a man a fish and you’ve fed him for a day. Teach the man how to fish and you’ve fed him for life,’" Prior said. "I also remember that Bell Mobility didn’t have PCS spectrum in Alberta and B.C. until mid-2002. Without looking, I’m willing to wager that they now have more tower sites in Alberta and British Columbia than Microcell has built since 1995. So I’m thinking that if the rest of us can learn it, they can learn how to fish, too. They wouldn’t have to try to game the system." Microcell’s director of regulatory affairs Dennis Béland retorted that Bell Mobility’s entry into Western Canada demonstrates that tower sharing is an effective way of building out a network. "Bell Mobility collocates with an inordinate number of Microcell sites in Western Canada. We were there first and we welcomed them with open arms to collocate on our sites to help us amortize the investment we had made in those two provinces. In fact, the Bell Mobility entry into Western Canada, we would like to see that model applied extensively." Taking aim at assertions made by Woodhead, Béland stated there is indeed a benefit to Rogers in site sharing and that comes in the form of rent. The Microcell executive also referred to comments Rogers made in front of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology during hearings into changing foreign ownership rules in telecom. "(It) complained about the difficulty at finding a good business case to make it worthwhile to deploy in rural regions. There’s a company that would love to do more collocation with you and pay rent to you and that’s a way of amortizing your deployment into those regions," Béland said in reference to Microcell. Woodhead doesn’t discount site sharing altogether, but said that it should only take place when it makes economic and technical sense to do so. "What Dennis wants to do is rent a room in my house without giving me a room in his house to rent. That’s the site banking argument he makes. If Dennis was to call me tomorrow and say, ‘Ted, I’d like to sit down and talk to you about joint builds and I’d like to pay half the cost of building your house …’ then maybe we have something to talk about. But that isn’t what Dennis is proposing." For more information on the contentious issue of antenna tower siting, refer to the tower study article. You can also find more detailed information pertaining to the position of the wireless carriers on the National Antenna Tower Policy Review web site.

Rogers and Telus slam Microcell over mandated site sharing proposal

News | December 3, 2003

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