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Last month, Quebecor ran a series of full-page ads in 24 Hours (and possibly other Sunmedia / Quebecor publications) that asked some pointed questions about the state of wireless telecommunications in Canada.

You can click on the image to view the PDF of the ADs.

55%
That’s how much more Canadians pay for wireless
than comparable American consumers.
In our view, that’s because a lack of competition in our protected market
allows the Big Three mobile phone companies to keep prices above the average prices elsewhere.
Wireless competition would give consumers a break.
Isn’t it time the government made that happen?

Are we
falling behind?
Want to download movies and music to your wireless device?
Watch live TV on it?
Pay for the subway with it?
Get concert and movies tickets on it?
Well… for full access to these services, you could move to Europe. Or the U.S… or Asia.
In our view, that’s because a lack of competition in our protected market results
in fewer new technologies being offered to consumers.
So, consumers in many other countries have advanced mobile phone services
virtually unknown in Canada.
Wireless competition would give consumers a break
Isn’t it time the government made that happen?

 CANADA!
We’re number… 29?
Canadians used to be number 1 in wireless use.
Now we’re 29th out of 30 OECD nations.
Why?
In our view, that’s because a lack of competition in our protected
market allows the Big Three mobile phone companies
to keep prices above other nations’ averages.
So now they’re number 1 in the world. In profits.
Wireless competition would give consumers a break.
Isn’t it time the government made that happen?

So what’s the meaning of all of this? Quebecor wants in on the lucrative wireless business. Maybe for a while, they might even be able to open up competition, right?

Doubtful.

Here’s a press release from the 17th of April in French, and English (translated via Google). On May 10th, Quebecor’s President Karl Peladeau announced Quebecor’s intent in a press conference – more HERE. CBC covered it HERE. Someone re-posted to StockHouse’s Bullboards, HERE.

In June, this is what the National Post reported on… something from the Canadian Telecom Summit. Frankly spoken, I would suspect such a summit to be about 10 – 12 people max, no?

Wireless players battling it out, Rogers chief says
CANADIAN TELECOM SUMMIT; Keynote speaker disputes competitors’ oligopoly charge
Peter Nowak, Financial Post
Published: Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The fireworks began early at the Canadian Telecom Summit yesterday, with Rogers Communications Inc. firing the first salvo in what was expected to be a three-day war of words over wireless.

Chief operating officer Nadir Mohamed took the offensive in his opening keynote address and rejected charges by rivals that the three national cellphone providers, Rogers, Bell Canada Inc. and Telus Corp., were operating an oligopoly that was stifling innovation and uptake with high prices.

“We battle it out to win share,” he said. “It is absurd to me that there’s a notion we’re all equal and we’re all sharing this pie.”
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Mr. Mohamed pointed to Rogers’ recent gains in share of the postpaid wireless market as proof of competition between the big three. Since Rogers bought rival Microcell in 2004, the company has seen its share rise to 45% from 20% while Bell has seen a corresponding loss, from 43% to 23%.

“That’s not an oligopoly,” he said.

Competitors such as MTS Allstream Inc., Quebecor Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. want a piece of Canada’s $13-billion wireless market and are urging the government to prevent the big three from bidding on new airwaves in an auction next year. Encouraging new entrants in this way will spur competition and lower prices, they say.

Mr. Mohamed said Quebecor and Shaw had their chance to enter the national market years ago through buying Microcell, a company they were both investors in along with Rogers. Both companies pulled out, however, leaving Rogers to buy it for $1.4-billion.

“Guess who stayed in there?” he said. “Come on in and make investments like we did.”

Chris Peirce, chief regulatory officer for MTS, said it was unfair of Mr. Mohamed to judge any firm’s past business decisions by current conditions.

“I don’t think the marketplace has ever been viewed as a won-and-done environment,” he said. “The market keeps fluctuating.”

The real showdown over wireless is expected tomorrow, with heads of MTS, Quebecor’s Videotron cable unit and Bell giving speeches, followed by panel discussions on regulation and wireless competition. Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, Competition Bureau commissioner Sheridan Scott and Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier are also speaking.

Today’s sessions will focus on the differences between consumer and business markets, anchored by a keynote address by Research In Motion Ltd. co-chief executive Jim Balsillie.

Wireless wasn’t the only market under attack yesterday with Ontario Progressive Conservative party leader John Tory, the former head of Rogers’ cable television unit, criticizing Canada’s deteriorating broadband performance.

Canada has fallen out of the top five to ninth among the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation in uptake, so the government needs to do more to encourage broadband spread and adoption to rural areas and strengthen that early lead.

“Our failure to modernize and stay relevant on the regulatory side combined with our predisposition as Canadians to be too easily satisfied is causing us to squander our world leadership in communications at just the time we should be exploiting it,” he said. “Broadband is a basic table stake now – if a community doesn’t have it, it won’t be able to effectively compete for jobs.”

Andrea Messineo, vice-president of Canada, Caribbean and Latin America for AT&T Inc., said Canada is behind the curve in adopting so-called converged communications, or a merging of landline, wireless, video and computing services. Converged services, such as simple unified voice mail between landline and mobiles, allow businesses to cut costs and boost productivity, another measure in which Canada is lagging.

Brad Fisher, Bell’s vice-president of consumer Internet services, said Canada was behind because telecommunications providers were still working out the business models for converged services. Free local calling, for example, has created a unique market dynamic not found in regions with more advanced converged services, such as Europe and Asia.

“We’re looking and we’re learning,” he said.

pnowak@nationalpost.com

You can read this article on the FP website, HERE.