The GazerBlog

Wind mobile is out of the gate. Honestly, it reminds me of our lost upstarts of ClearNET and Fido, both absorbed and extinguished in spirit if not name by Telus and Rogers respectively. CBC News – Calgary – Wind Mobile launches service

The most ridiculous statement in the entire stage surrounding the launch is from the union rep stating the ability for Wind to launch amid questionable foreign ownership is “an affront to democracy”. Excuse me? It’s an affront to democracy that the elected government overruled the bureaucracy that is tasked with carrying out the laws and intents of that government? Really? Sounds like the system is working to me.

What was an affront to democracy was the CRTC that tried to overrule the launch of Wind on foreign ownership grounds (which are unfounded in my opinion. They are within the law and restrictions as required) allowed Telus and Rogers to purchase and remove the only competitors to them in the nation. Bell came to the party as a tag-along really. They didn’t get there first on the purchases. Democracy, and the nation is served by a thriving, competitive communication service. We haven’t had that since Fido was absorbed.

Face facts. Mobile is a cash cow for the multi-industry conglomerates. That has been milked to the point we have the lowest mobile penetration in the industrialized world. The infrastructure costs of rolling out these networks of towers is no longer the obstacle it was. The issue is that the shareholders of Telus, Bell and Rogers are not going to be able to ride the backs of the cell customers for their profits, arbitrarily changing pricing and marking up almost no-cost services (caller ID for one) to the tune of 40,000 times for their profits. They will have to compete.

I hope Wind succeeds and gives us all reasonable, competitive choices in the marketplace. And I really hope Apple gets the iPhone onto the 1700 MHz spectrum soon, so the US has a choice for T-Mobile and we have a choice with Wind.

The union rep should examine how much the cellular oligopoly in Canada has set us back as a nation. They have done more damage to “Canadian interests and culture”, not to mention competitiveness, than anything Wind could ever achieve.

Currently playing in iTunes: The Polar Express by Tom Hanks