Paradis meets with telcos in advance of final 700 MHz rules

Industry Minister Christian Paradis held a series of meetings with telecom companies over the past two months to discuss the 700 MHz auction rules and other industry issues. According to interviews and records in the federal lobbyist registry, officials from Telus Corp., Rogers Communications Inc., Quebecor Media Inc., Wind Mobile, Sasktel, Public Mobile Inc., BlackBerry, and MTS Allstream Inc., have met with the minister since the new year. Last summer, the Industry Department published final written comments for a public consultation on its proposed rules for the auction. It has not yet issued a final decision for all the auction regulations and format. In an emailed statement Monday, Ted Woodhead, senior vice-president of government and regulatory affairs at Telus, said he could not give any specific information as to what was discussed in the company's meeting with the minister. “The Minister did in fact meet with all stakeholders in advance of the release of the final 700 MHz auction rules,” he said. “We hope that the rules are released as soon as possible so that the spectrum can be auctioned and deployed as expediously as possible so that LTE technology can be rolled out more broadly to rural Canadians.” BCE Inc. spokeswoman Jaqueline Michelis said Bell would not comment on the specifics of any individual meeting. “Consultations on the 700 MHz auction have been ongoing for some time and have included many meetings with Industry Canada,” Michelis said in an emailed statement. In an interview on CBC’s Power & Politics with Evan Solomon on Feb. 20, Paradis said the government is committed “to go ahead with an auction by the end of 2013.” The minister and the Industry Department previously said the auction would take place in the first half of 2013, followed by an auction of 2500 MHz licences within a year. Simon Lockie, chief regulatory officer for new entrant carrier Wind Mobile, owned by Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd., said in a phone interview that Wind and many other companies held meetings with Paradis and Industry Canada officials in January. “It was a wide-ranging discussion of the high-level issues that we see impacting the industry and our company,” Lockie said. “Obviously, we welcomed the opportunity to meet with him and availed ourselves of it.” Lockie said the meetings were not a further consultation on the 700 MHz auction and that the meeting allowed Wind to discuss top issues facing the company as well as other government policies and some related to spectrum. “I think any characterization that it’s a further consultation on the 700 is probably a little misleading,” he said. Last August, The Wire Report reported that Paradis met with CEOs and other executives from 13 telcos over four days of meetings to discuss the 700 MHz auction. Last March, Paradis said that, for the 700 MHz auction, national incumbent carriers Bell, Telus and Rogers would each be limited to a single block of “prime” spectrum in each licence area, ensuring a fourth player will have access to the fourth block of prime spectrum available in each market. Regional incumbents SaskTel and MTS Allstream will also be capped to one block per licence area in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, respectively. Quebecor told Industry Canada for the consultation last year that the department should allow regional wireless carriers operating in different parts of the country to share network infrastructure while bidding in the 700 MHz auction as separate entities. Wind and new entrant Mobilicity had called on the government to set aside some of the “prime” 700 MHz spectrum for new entrants, as the department had in the 2008 AWS wireless auction. The so-called “prime” blocks are coveted because they support popular wireless devices used by Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. in the United States. Chris Peirce, chief corporate officer at MTS Allstream, said in a phone interview Monday that the minister met with MTS as well as a number of other CEOs to discuss the 700 MHz auction and other issues. “It was a chance to discuss a variety of things, both what we’re up to corporately and concerns we pretty consistently expressed both to the government and the regulator,” Peirce said. He said that, for the 700 MHz auction, his company is concerned that the auction rules could discriminate against regional providers like MTS. Peirce said that, during the meeting, the company also discussed the state of competition in the wholesale business market for wireline telecom services. “We think that the regulator needs to forcefully ensure that there is a wholesale access regime in place for competitors,” he said. Peirce said the regulator has to recognize that a consequence of lagging competition in the business market contributes to a productivity gap between Canada and the United States. Peirce declined to comment on whether the spectrum deal between Rogers and Shaw Communications Inc. was discussed in the meeting. “All I can say is that the things we’ve talked about to the government and the regulator are pretty consistent,” he said. In January, Rogers announced that it reached a deal that would give it an option to purchase spectrum Shaw acquired in a 2008 auction once an Industry Canada moratorium on transferring that spectrum to incumbent carriers expires in September 2014. The option, which is subject to Industry Canada regulatory approval, would give Rogers the ability to acquire 20 MHz of spectrum in B.C., Alberta and Manitoba, and 10 MHz in areas of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and northern Ontario. Jennifer Kett, a spokeswoman for Rogers, said in an emailed statement that she could not comment on the specifics of Rogers’ meeting and said the company regularly meets with government officials. “We are not aware of the exact timing of the auction,” Kett said. “We are not at liberty to speak about strategy or targets or any planned participation. The auction rules prohibit such signaling.” Kett added that Rogers’ networks are the foundation of its business. “With the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets, the rise in the use of LTE, data usage is exploding,” she said. “We want to keep building and strengthening our networks to ensure our customers continue to enjoy the incredibly fast speeds and throughput they desire.” In an emailed response to questions about the meetings, including why the minister held them, Industry Canada spokeswoman Stéfanie Power said “the minister meets with companies and stakeholders on a regular basis to hear their opinions and views.” —With reporting by Danika Grenier at dgrenier@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Paradis meets with telcos in advance of final 700 MHz rules

News | February 26, 2013

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Paradis meets with telcos in advance of final 700 MHz rules

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