The Canadian government provided significant roadblocks during the pre-launch days of WIND Mobile, mostly surrounding parent company Globalive’s investment from Egypitian telecom Orascom, but in an address known as the Speech from the Throne, Governor General Michaëlle Jean had this to say about the upcoming session of Parliament:
Our Government will open Canada’s doors further to venture capital and to foreign investment in key sectors, including the satellite and telecommunications industries, giving Canadian firms access to the funds and expertise they need.
The Conservative government up here is highly focused on strengthening our economy, so many of the speech’s other items revolved around securing industries, achieving financial balance, and creating jobs. Welcoming foreign investment is a great way to quickly create new jobs, but those home-grown industries might not be too happy about opening up the economic borders.
We won’t be able to see the full effect of Jean’s statement until the budget is done up over the next couple of days, but the general idea here is that WIND Mobile’s situation will become the rule rather than the exception from here on in. Depending on how attractive the Canadian government makes it for foreign investors, international service providers, like T-Mobile, Vodafone, and who knows, maybe even Telefónica may find their way up north. Even though there’s WIND just getting comfortable, three well-established incumbents with their respective prepaid minions brands, a few regional carriers like Sasktel, and and Mobilicity on the way, wireless competition in Canada could still use some work. Bell, TELUS and Rogers have all carved up the mobile market and grown complacent, and as well-meaning as WIND and Mobilicity may be, it will take some real money to give the Big Three an actual fight.
You can read the whole throne speech here, if you’ve got some time to kill.