The executive chairman of the Egyptian company Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, the company behind WIND Mobile, shared a few thoughts about the Canadian telecom industry with The Globe And Mail yesterday. Naguib Sawiris certainly did not hold back in the interview covering the Canadian telecom industry and foreign ownership rules.
With operations in the Middle East, Southern Europe, South Asia and parts of Africa, including some of the most impoverished parts of the world, Sawiris got thing started by describing Canada as the”true telecom backwater."
He did not mince his words when it came to the big three carriers (Bell, Rogers, TELUS), describing them as “a joke” and “too big, too slow.” Two of them (he does not mention which) apparently tried to buy him out at some point. He also accused them of playing “unfairly” when it comes to roaming and wireless infrastructure-sharing agreements.
Sawiris went on to describe Mobilicity and Public Mobile as “dead on arrival,” suggesting that they will not be able to compete against the incumbents by themselves. He expects that WIND Mobile will acquire one or both when they have grown their subscriber bases:
“Wind should be the consolidator of all the smaller players here. We are going to be open to that. We are not interested in smaller players that are only coming with cash, or the licenses they paid cash for. We want them to succeed and have some subscribers. Because we can’t do the job alone.”
Not surprisingly, Sawiris also does not like Canada’s foreign ownership rules. Last fall, the CRTC ruled that WIND Mobile did not meet Canadian ownership requirements. The decision delayed WIND’s launch until Industry Minister Tony Clement reversed the ruling.
I’m not sure what Sawiris was hoping to accomplish with these comments but he’s certainly got people talking.