Let the Wireless Lawsuits begin!

As predicted, the government mismanagement of the technology portfolio is turning into a disaster that just keeps on giving. Today, the first lawsuits was filed. To my surprise, it was one of the new entrants, Public Mobile who launched the first lawsuit (I expected it to be one of the incumbents).

Public Mobile is complaining loudly that granting Globe Alive a one-time exception to the foreign ownership rules puts it at a major competitive disadvantage. No kidding. One company can draw on a massive pool of foreign investment capital, and the rest can’t. It’s completely unfair.

Not only unfair, but bad for Canada. Since the rest of the new entrants didn’t have access to as foreign capital, they weren’t able to bid as high as they would have or buy as much spectrum as they might have to become significant national competitors.

How much higher would the bidding have gone? How much money did the Conservatives throw away at the auction by not allowing more bidders? Given that the auction went into the billions, it’s a safe bet that Canada is out “billions”. A disaster and a scandal of epic proportions.

Thank goodness parliament prorogued or the Conservatives might have to answer for their actions.