“Big three” telecom companies going heavy on advertising
Posted August 21, 2013 6:09 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The country’s big wireless companies are stepping up their advertising blitz as speculation continues that Verizon will try to enter the Canadian market.
Big ads claiming TELUS, Bell, and Rogers, which is the parent company of News1130, will be at a disadvantage if Verizon comes to Canada, popped up in two Vancouver newspapers this morning and a national paper.
Commercials continue to appear on radio stations across the country.
Bell and TELUS also released a survey that suggest more than 80 per cent of Canadians don’t want to give an unfair advantage to foreign companies when airwaves are put up for auction by the federal government in a few months.
“Canadians have an instinctive sense of fairness and they see that giving such clear benefits to $120-billion US corporations to the direct disadvantage of Canadian companies just isn’t right,” says Bell Canada President and CEO George Cope in a release.
The Harper government has repeatedly said it would be a good thing if Verizon came to Canada because it would increase competition and drive prices down.
“[Canadian telecom companies] were supportive of the policy when we first announced it. It’s only because Verizon has made noises about possibly coming into Canada that the anxiety has arisen,” Industry Minister James Moore said earlier this week.
There have been reports that Verizon wants to buy Wind Mobile and possibly struggling Mobilicity as a way to enter the Canadian market.
If Verizon decided to participate in the auction, rules prevent it from continuing to negotiate acquisition deals until afterward.
