National Post: Christine Dobby looks back at Canada’s telecom war of 2013

The National Post's Christine Dobby looks back at Big Telecom's efforts last year to limit your telecom choice. We know Big Telecom are gearing up for a huge fight in 2014 as they try to keep your bills sky-high. Article by Christine Dobby for the National Post Last summer a simmering dispute over obscure regulations boiled over into all-out war as the country’s cellphone titans took on the federal government and its efforts to entice a U.S. giant north. The dialogue got heated as the three largest wireless carriers – ostensible rivals – joined forces to target Ottawa’s policy on the industry. They waged a co-ordinated public relations campaign with troops of executives touring newsrooms to get the message out. They flooded the airwaves with radio ads, launched a website and helped boost the newspaper industry with a barrage of full-page ads about the U.S. threat and Ottawa’s betrayal, each one more dire than the next.

In an interview with the Financial Post, Telus Corp. Chief Executive Darren Entwistle predicted a “bloodbath” if the government didn’t change the rules for the upcoming auction of cellular radio waves known as spectrum.

BCE Inc. board member Anthony Fell penned an open letter accusing James Moore – who was appointed Industry Minister in a summer cabinet shuffle — of approaching his new file with “arrogance” and disrespecting the telecom heads by granting them only short meetings to air their grievances.

The carriers also took to the courts, collectively launching an action seeking clarity of the timing of implementation of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s new national wireless code in early July. Later that month Telus filed a lawsuit challenging the government’s spectrum policy, which it said unfairly changed the rules partway through the game.

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