Americas

Americas

Canada to announce telecom foreign ownership rules

02 February 2012 03:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Canadian government could clarify its rules for foreign investment in the telecommunications sector as early as this month, along with rules for an auction of wireless spectrum, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Industry players have been impatient for an announcement on this issue after years of hints from Ottawa that it wants to loosen restrictions on foreign ownership in the industry to boost competition and lower prices for mobile phone services, which are among the highest in the developed world.

The announcement could come this month, or possibly in March, said the source, who declined to be named.

The ruling Conservatives say they will make their plans known ahead of an auction of valuable 700 MHz radio frequency.

Canada now caps foreign ownership in the telecoms sector at 20 percent of a carrier’s voting shares and restricts direct and indirect control to 46.7 percent.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis is expected to allow more foreign involvement in the sector, but it’s not clear how he will do so.

A previous industry minister put forward three options: increasing the foreign ownership limit to 49 percent, allowing full foreign ownership of companies with less than 10 percent market share, or eliminating all barriers to foreign ownership.

Ottawa took baby steps toward more competition in the sector with a spectrum auction in 2008, in which it set aside a block of spectrum that was off limits to the established players.

Rogers Communications , Telus and BCE control 95 percent of the wireless market in Canada.