TORONTO — The founder of Wind Mobile says Rogers, Bell and Telus will never face real competition unless Canada makes big changes to telecommunications industry rules.
Toronto-based entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera says governments and regulators keep saying they want healthy competition but they keep failing to deliver.
He says in an interview that the proposed takeover of Shaw Communications by Rogers Communications would be the latest in a series of setbacks that result in high prices.
Lacavera built Wind into Canada’s fourth-largest wireless business from its creation in 2008 until it was sold in 2016 to Shaw, which renamed it Freedom Mobile.
Lacavera says he believes Wind Mobile could succeed as an independent, but that would require policies and enforcement actions that limit the Big Three’s power.
Rogers CEO Joe Natale say he’s confident a Shaw deal will be approved by early next year — but there’s been stiff opposition from consumer groups, academics and customers since it was announced on March 15.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2021.