Moore launches cross-country tour, campaign to counter incumbents’ message

Industry Minister James Moore launched on Friday a multi-pronged campaign to promote the government’s wireless policy and to counter a campaign by incumbent carriers, who argue the government is unfairly favouring U.S. telecom giant Verizon Communications Inc. in the build up to an auction of coveted wireless airwaves. In an email sent to Conservative Party followers on Friday, Moore said the government is “not backing down” from its wireless industry policies, which incumbents BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. have criticized in recent weeks. “Recently, Canada's largest wireless companies have launched a public relations campaign to persuade Canadians and our Government to stop our policy of encouraging competition and more choice,” Moore said in the email, which encouraged recipients to sign a petition supporting the government’s policies. “They want us to maintain the status quo in which they hold 90% of the market. But Canadians know better.” The email blast followed Moore’s launch of a cross-country tour in Vancouver on Friday, which will focus on the government’s wireless policies, and the launch of a new Conservative Party website, at www.consumersfirst.ca, that says mobile prices are higher in Canada than in many other countries. “Canada is ranked among the ten most expensive countries for wireless services in virtually every category,” the website says, citing an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report on international wireless pricing released in July. Bell, Telus and Rogers have launched their own public campaigns in recent weeks, aiming to change Industry Canada rules limiting them to a single block of “prime” spectrum in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction while allowing other players—including Verizon, which is mulling an entry to Canada's wireless market—to acquire two out of four prime blocks in each region of the country. The incumbents also said government policies will unfairly allow Verizon to use the incumbents’ own wireless network infrastructure, and that the company’s entry into the Canadian market will cause job losses. As part of the campaign, they have taken out newspaper and radio ads and spoken to editorial boards at major daily newspapers in an effort to convince the government to close policy “loopholes” that they say favour Verizon, and to “level the playing field” heading into the auction. Summa Strategies political consultant Michele Austin said in an interview Friday that Moore is the “right vessel” to counter the incumbents’ message. She noted that he held many similar public events and speaking tours to promote government policy in his previous post as heritage minister. “This is not a big stretch for minister Moore. He is very happy doing it,” she said. The public war of words between the incumbents and the government took on a personal tone this week after BCE director Anthony Fell said in a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, published in the National Post Tuesday, that it was “unseemly” for Moore to “make grand pronouncements” on telecom policy after less than a month in the industry portfolio. “To be frank, there is an arrogance about both the Ministry and the Department which I believe is inappropriate,” the letter said. Moore, who replaced former industry minister Christian Paradis as a part of a wider cabinet shuffle last month, responded in a statement posted on his website that the incumbents were trying to “skew” the debate over the government’s wireless policy through “misleading campaigns.” Austin said Friday that it would be a “serious misjudgement” to assume Moore is not engaged in the wireless file, pointing to his cross-country tour as evidence. “He’s probably more motivated to do it than he has been in a long time to get the message out there because he’s committed to .” Will Stewart, a principal consultant at Ensight Canada, said in a telephone interview that it was unusual for a minister to launch a speaking tour in direct response to a public relations campaign against government policy. The efforts, he said, could indicate that the government is “concerned” about public opinion on the file. “I haven’t seen that type of response before,” he said. “Usually it’s a proactive message from the government, not necessarily a reactive one, but this is clearly a reactive move so that is a little bit more unusual on the face of it.” David Coletto, head of public affairs research firm Abacus Data—which is owned by Summa Strategies—said he believes Moore is “campaigning” on the government’s wireless policy because “they think it’s a winner with the public.” The public, he said, already appears to believe wireless prices are too high and supports the government’s efforts to encourage more competition in the market. “They might have the public on their side but they can’t give any room to the telecoms who are spending a lot of money and effort,” Coletto said. “The three big telecoms are making the claim that the policy is unfair … You never leave a charge unanswered.” Moore said in an interview with the Globe and Mail on Thursday that he believes the incumbents’ campaign is designed to “send messages of uncertainty to the marketplace and deter anybody from thinking that the Canadian environment is a good environment in which to invest.” The Globe also reported this week that Verizon had put off its efforts to acquire Canadian new entrant carriers Wind Mobile (which is controlled by Globalive Wireless Management Corp. while Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd. has a non-controlling a 65 per cent equity share) and Mobilicity (owned by Dave Wireless Inc.). Verizon, the report said, will delay a potential acquisition of either company until after the spectrum auction, which is scheduled to start in January. The Communications, Energy and Paperworks Union of Canada (CEP), which has 110,000 members in the forestry, energy, telecommunications and media sectors, also spoke out about wireless policy on Friday. It called on the government to abandon its goal of seeing a fourth carrier compete against the incumbents in each region of the country “and to instead establish a Crown Corporation to fulfill this objective.” “Instead of giving a slew of benefits to a gigantic US-based corporation that will take the jobs, expertise and profits out of the country, why not set up a Crown telecommunications company that will hire Canadians, build on this country's impressive history in the sector and return the surplus to the public?” CEP president David Coles said in a release. “If the government is intent on providing consumers with a fourth major carrier in each market it should acquire one of the struggling small telcos, reserve some of the available 700 MHz spectrum for public use and establish 'Canada Wireless' as a Crown Corporation.” Moore’s office did not respond to a request for comment on CEP’s proposal Friday. —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca --- CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story did not clearly identify the new website as belonging to the Conservative Party.

Moore launches cross-country tour, campaign to counter incumbents’ message

News | 08/16/2013 9:02 pm EDT

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