The Canadian government has issued several long awaited decisions that will alter that country's telecommunications landscape. It has announced that it will open up greater ownership of Canadian telecom providers by foreign investors. It will also set aside 25 percent of an upcoming auction of prime spectrum for smaller carriers.
The Federal Court in Canada on Friday rejected a government exemption that allowed Wind Mobile to run. A judge ruled that the Conservative government violated the Telecommunications Act's rules on foreign ownership by allowing Globalive, which owns Wind, to run the cell carrier with more than a 20 percent share stake owned by a foreign company. Globalive has 45 days to either appeal the verdict or reduce its foreign owner's share.
T-Mobile during its morning media event today in New York City made further indirect allusions to possible iPhone plans. Carrier officials when asked about the option in the post-exclusive US environment didn't confirm or deny plans but instead told the media to "ask Apple." The need to adapt to T-Mobile's 1,700MHz 3G band was cited as one obstacle, although T-Mobile made allusions to 3G chipsets having "evolved" to support many more cellular frequencies and thus covering both AT&T and T-Mobile users.
