‘It has an impact,’ CWTA’s Lord says of Telus exit

OTTAWA — Bernard Lord, CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, said that Telus Corp.’s decision to leave his group affects the association, though because of the way its funding is structured, that effect is not as significant as it would be for other trade associations. “Of course, there is an impact. When you lose … your second- or third-largest member, it has an impact on an organization,” Lord told reporters Tuesday following a speech to the Canadian Club of Ottawa. He added that the CWTA, unlike many other trade associations, doesn’t rely solely on dues for its operating budget, but instead has “revenues that come from services that we provide the industry and that doesn’t change.” “Of course, when you lose a member like Telus, it forces everyone in the association to take a look at what’s happening in the association. I’m sure that will take place,” he said. He added that’s normal when a large member leaves. “It prompts everybody to take a look at what we do,” he said. Telus pulled out of the CWTA in February. Ted Woodhead, vice-president of regulatory affairs at Telus, told the Wire Report at the time that the association’s role had changed from promotion to speaking for the industry on various issues, but that because there is such a variety in the kind of companies that make up the wireless industry, its range of viewpoints is hard to synthesize into a coherent message coming from one representative group. Around 15 years ago, BCE Inc. also left the association and then came back, which Lord brought up Tuesday. “From time to time, there may be members of the association who feel they’re better off not being fully part of the association. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t, but we’ll work through that,” he said. “What’s really important to us is we have a suite of services that we provide the industry and consumers, and we want to make sure that continues.” Following Telus’ exit in February, Marie-Eve Francoeur, a spokeswoman for Bell, said the company had “no plans for any change,” while Rogers’ answer was more non-committal. “We’ve been reviewing our options and we’ll make a decision that’s right for our customers,” Patricia Trott, a spokeswoman for Rogers, said at the time. Lord said that the possibility of Rogers leaving was “all rumours.” He said that when Telus left, the company indicated that it wanted to “continue to support and fund a lot of initiatives of the CWTA.” “We have a string of services that we provide that all these people want to continue. If you ask people from Rogers today, they will tell you they want the Mobile Giving Foundation to continue, they want Recycle My Cell to continue, they want the text-to-911 to continue,” he said. “These things all have to take place. And we do that — it’s very practical. So we’ll work those issues out, and in the end, we’ll do what our members want us to do.” He said that Telus’ leaving of the association cannot be compared to the exit of three new entrants last year. Wind Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile said last year that they were leaving the CWTA because the wireless association had a “consistent bias” in favour of incumbents Rogers Communications Inc., BCE and Telus. “Of those three players, one has been bought off by Telus, one is in bankruptcy protection and the third one is up for sale, so they are in a very different place than Telus,” he said, referring to Public Mobile, Mobilicity and Wind, respectively. In his speech, Lord noted that Canadian demand for data consumption is expected to grow 900 per cent over the next five years, which he said would require “significant” investment. “Canadians don’t want the wireless service they had yesterday. They want the best wireless service available anywhere, and they want the speed that goes along with it,” he said. “We want to maintain our leadership position that we have in Canada, and to do that, we’ll need to continue to invest,” Lord added in his comments after the speech. Lord also commented on the fate of Quebecor Inc. subsidiary Videotron as a potential fourth national carrier in the wake of Pierre Karl Péladeau’s decision to run for the sovereigntist Parti Québécois in the upcoming Quebec election. “They’re a member in very good standing, and they’re very active in the CWTA, and I have no reason to believe that’s about to change,” he said of Videotron. “Mr. Péladeau has decided to run for office in the province of Quebec. We’ll see how the voters react to that, but I think there’s a lot of speculation on what’s going to happen. Videotron is Videotron, and Mr. Péladeau is Mr. Péladeau.” The Wire Report reported earlier this month that despite the fact Péladeau resigned as CEO of Quebecor last year and quit his board duties with the company upon announcing his political intentions, observers said the perceived association he has with the company remains strong. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

‘It has an impact,’ CWTA’s Lord says of Telus exit

News | 03/18/2014 9:27 pm EDT

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