Wind Mobile backer regrets Canadian launch

[PiuYi]

Wind Mobile backer regrets Canadian launch

The billionaire financier behind the Wind Mobile cellular telephone company says he regrets getting involved in Canada in the first place.

That's one of several revelations made by Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian founder of the Orascom media conglomerate, in an interview with the CBC's Amanda Lang.

Orascom provided much of the financing for Globalive's Wind Mobile service when the brand launched in 2009.

"It was a bad idea," he said in the interview, which aired on The Lang & O'Leary Exchange at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Globalive, headed by Canadian entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera, has a complex ownership structure under which the Canadian equity owners control the company, but Orascom put up more than 80 per cent of the funding.

That raised the ire of telecom incumbents Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. which complained to the CRTC that the company doesn't adhere to Canada's stringent foreign ownership rules.

After a lengthy process, Canadian officials eventually ruled that Wind was within the rules and was allowed to launch a cellular service in late 2009.

Canada is the only country in the world, besides China, that hasn't opened up to foreign direct investment for foreign capital, Sawiris said. "I don't know why Canada wants to be matched with China," he said. "There's only two countries [with] very ridiculous old laws, and nothing is happening."

"There's no real political will here to introduce competition into this closed market," he said.

Spectrum auction
Sawiris spent roughly $500 million in a wireless spectrum auction in 2008 to get the necessary space on airwaves to launch a cellular service. The federal government set aside a certain percentage of that spectrum specifically for new entrants, in the hopes of spurring competition.

Another spectrum auction of more powerful 700 MHz frequency auction is coming up, but based on his Canadian experiences thus far, Sawiris says Wind won't be bidding on any new spectrum.

"We would like to, but these are not fair rules," he said. "Our position is clear: if they don't set aside, we won't bid for it — why would we go in and just increase the price so the government makes more money and we get devastated," Sawiris said.

Sawiris said Canada's antiquated telecom rules are destined to hurt the economy's productivity and dampen innovation.

"You need to ask yourself, why isn't Rogers in the U.K., like Vodafone or France Telecom," he said.

"Why aren't they everywhere if they're so good? The answer is simple, here they're protected. They can be inefficient, their cost structure can be expensive."

He says Wind helped bring down cellphone prices by an average of 30 per cent across the board. He says the three incumbents all have virtually identical ARPU numbers — an acronym meaning average revenue per user, or the amount of money they get from each customer. That's an indication of a market with no competition, he says.

"Why would an Egyptian like me be in 25 countries, and a big company [stay] here? Because they're pampered," he said. "How can you create innovation if you close up yourself like that? What's the argument? I don't see it."

Wind Mobile added 45,000 new customers last quarter, bringing its subscriber base to 317,000 in total. That's an impressive growth rate, but still a long way off the 9.1 million wireless customers Rogers has, or the 7.3 million at Bell or 7.1 million at Telus.

Sawiris says he isn't afraid of competing with the big boys — but Canadian competition rules make that impossible.

"We are trying to help [consumers] and not because we are good guys — because we want to make money," he said. "We want to come here and earn with hard work, but we are encountering nightmares," he said.

He says wireless prices remain higher than they should be on the retail level. "If they can reduce their prices 30 per cent, why didn't they do that before we came?" he asked.

"And how will they continue after we leave? If we leave, maybe prices will go up to where they were."

Wind Mobile backer regrets Canadian launch - Business - CBC News





i like this guy, tells it like it is

[FerrariEnzo]

Wow that is so true.. especially "Canada is the only country in the world, besides China, that hasn't opened up to foreign direct investment for foreign capital, Sawiris said. "I don't know why Canada wants to be matched with China," he said. "There's only two countries [with] very ridiculous old laws, and nothing is happening."
Canada isnt like china, theres no exploitation for cheap labour here...


I hope this msg will get accross to the government... it would be a shame if the auction goes in favour of robelus...

[Hehe]

I think this man has a point.

I mean, the part where he said, if Rogers' model works, why aren't they in other places? Then you see Vodaphone, and other EU telecoms everywhere.

[q0192837465]

Well, when regulations on telecom companies are made by ex telecom execs, what else can u expect. Seriously, I refuse to believe that there's no kickbacks.
Posted via RS Mobile

[Glove]

I completely agree,

there needs to be far more competition here to get prices lower,

what we pay for insurance, cable, internet, phones ect... pretty much any kind of service,

is completely ludicrous compared to our southern counterparts,

its all pretty much half price in the US,

why does canada lock down our outsourcing like that?

[dachinesedude]

huge amount of lobbying goes on, how can the little guys compete when these big telecom companies "donate" millions to the officials

seriously, we're paying ridiculous prices for phone plans, especially after knowing how much it really costs for the company to run the networks, on a cost per subscriber basis

we're talking about at least 400% markup here

please bring in foreign competition, NOW

[Jsunu]

If you want to be depressed read up on telecommunication policies we have set it Canada. It is very backwards and sets it up so that only a handful of corperations are controlling 100% of the market, completely screwing 100% of canadian citizens.

[Glove]

I would have switched to wind / mobilicity or whatever by now if one of them would be compatible with my fuckin Iphone,

the only reason im stuck with rogers is because I cant use my iphone with one of the new carriers

[!Yaminashi]

Originally Posted by Glove

its all pretty much half price in the US,

why does canada lock down our outsourcing like that?

It's like he said, its because they're PROTECTED here. It allows them to charge ridiculous prices and make it seem normal

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

cuz canada is lame and we have our own form of lame corruption.

canada is great at protecting the weak, but mistakenly identify the lazy with the weak as well.

[q0192837465]

Originally Posted by Glove

I would have switched to wind / mobilicity or whatever by now if one of them would be compatible with my fuckin Iphone,

the only reason im stuck with rogers is because I cant use my iphone with one of the new carriers

Amen to that
Posted via RS Mobile

[Tim Budong]

Originally Posted by Glove

I would have switched to wind / mobilicity or whatever by now if one of them would be compatible with my fuckin Iphone,

the only reason im stuck with rogers is because I cant use my iphone with one of the new carriers

u gotta make some sacrifices to go on the discount brands
but from my experiences with mobilicity, u could be crawling bak to iphone

[StylinRed]

Originally Posted by FerrariEnzo

Wow that is so true.. especially "Canada is the only country in the world, besides China, that hasn't opened up to foreign direct investment for foreign capital, Sawiris said. "I don't know why Canada wants to be matched with China," he said. "There's only two countries [with] very ridiculous old laws, and nothing is happening."
Canada isnt like china, theres no exploitation for cheap labour here...


I hope this msg will get accross to the government... it would be a shame if the auction goes in favour of robelus...

yes lets look @ how great all those other countries are doing which are open to FDI.... hmm

wish our oil&gas was closed

[Psykopathik]

Originally Posted by Glove

I would have switched to wind / mobilicity or whatever by now if one of them would be compatible with my fuckin Iphone,

the only reason im stuck with rogers is because I cant use my iphone with one of the new carriers

I gave up my iPhone to goto Mobi. I can always carry an iPod touch in my other pocket lol or maybe stick a 7-11 sim into my iPhone as a emergency line, rather than paying roaming


having the iPhone is great, but not feeding these greedy fuckers anymore is even better.

[RRxtar]

another aspect of the 'protection' of the big 3 in canada is they combine for about 125,000 employees. you can bet if the market was opened up to foreign carriers, a good chunk of them would be unemployed.

mind you, canada has let a ton of other large employers go under, so take that for what its worth i guess..

[FerrariEnzo]

Originally Posted by Glove

I would have switched to wind / mobilicity or whatever by now if one of them would be compatible with my fuckin Iphone,

the only reason im stuck with rogers is because I cant use my iphone with one of the new carriers

i dont understand why people are so caught up over iPhone.. I had the 3G and 3Gs before... the few months, it was awesome, then after that, i hardly played with it, i just got it coz it was a trend... I have an android phone, same thing, first few months i was playing around with it non stop, now i only use to make/receive calls... i mean at the end of the day, its just a phone...

[Tapioca]

^ A lot of people see phones as a cure for all of life's ills.

I'm glad that I'm not the only person who still sees a phone for what it is - a communication device.
Posted via RS Mobile

[Psykopathik]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

^ A lot of people see phones as a cure for all of life's ills.

I'm glad that I'm not the only person who still sees a phone for what it is - a communication device.
Posted via RS Mobile

I see mine as an entertainment device that happens to be able to make phone calls as a novelty

[Tim Budong]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

^ A lot of people see phones as a cure for all of life's ills.

I'm glad that I'm not the only person who still sees a phone for what it is - a communication device.
Posted via RS Mobile

elaborate on this
becuz i communicate A LOT MORE with a smartphone

[Teh Doucher]

Originally Posted by FerrariEnzo

i dont understand why people are so caught up over iPhone.. I had the 3G and 3Gs before... the few months, it was awesome, then after that, i hardly played with it, i just got it coz it was a trend... I have an android phone, same thing, first few months i was playing around with it non stop, now i only use to make/receive calls... i mean at the end of the day, its just a phone...

Originally Posted by Tapioca

^ A lot of people see phones as a cure for all of life's ills.

I'm glad that I'm not the only person who still sees a phone for what it is - a communication device.
Posted via RS Mobile

blackberry.

[asian_XL]

Originally Posted by Glove

I completely agree,

there needs to be far more competition here to get prices lower,

what we pay for insurance, cable, internet, phones ect... pretty much any kind of service,

is completely ludicrous compared to our southern counterparts,

its all pretty much half price in the US,

why does canada lock down our outsourcing like that?

why do you complain when you get cheap medical and it's expensive in the South? my relatives who live in the states would rather pay expensive gas price and phone bill, but lower medical insurance.

[dangonay]

What a whiner. Everything he said also applied when they launched.

I hate people that know the way things work before they get involved, dive in anyway, and then bitch about it afterwards.
Posted via RS Mobile

[Manic!]

I would have switched to wind already if it was available in Nanaimo.

[goo3]

Originally Posted by RRxtar

another aspect of the 'protection' of the big 3 in canada is they combine for about 125,000 employees. you can bet if the market was opened up to foreign carriers, a good chunk of them would be unemployed.

then get hired by the other carriers.. networks don't run themselves.

if the govt was out to protect the big 3, then why did fido and clearnet exist? the only problem was that they both got bought out.

And now, why do wind, mobi, and public mobile exist?

Maybe back in the beginning, the mobile market was too small and they wanted protect the few to make sure they survived. But that's not the case anymore.

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by darthchilli

elaborate on this
becuz i communicate A LOT MORE with a smartphone

E-mail, text, phone calls - these are the things I use my "smartphone" for.