Rogers, Bell, and Telus.......and sort-of Virgin. But they're so small they're completely insignificant. Each of the big three has a "budget" brand as well (Fido, Solo, and Koodo, respectively) but it's still same shit, different pile.
The big 3 form a natural oligopoly due to the extreme nature of the initial outlay costs and regulatory hurdles that must be passed in order to enter the market. Not only that, but with the CRTC being as corrupt as it is and having no real accountability - or visibility - to anyone, they provided yet another barrier to entry: every changing red tape and regulations. Because of this, we have disproportionately high costs for service received in this country. No real competition and no real regulation oversight = consumers getting fucked in the ass. It got so bad they got pressured into opening up the airwaves and forcing the big 3 to sell 50% of their capacity to other companies at reasonable rates.
So up steps this Wind company that 's 80% owned by Canadians with financing from foreign sources. They get approved to conduct business up here (Canadian ownership is the big sticking point there) and buy up a shitton of the auctioned-off airspace to become a big enough possible threat to be noticed. On top of that, they've been smack-talking the big 3 for a while now. What happens all of a sudden? The CRTC comes up and says "yeah, we approved you before but you know what? With the debt load you're carrying, we're deeming you not to be under Canadian control regardless of your ownership structure (correlating debt load to defacto control) so you're no longer approved and can't conduct business in this country". If you can tell me with a straight face that the big 3 weren't behind this, you're either very naive or I want a huge order of that drug you're on that allows you to view this world through the biggest rose-coloured glasses known to man.
You know what the real kicker is up here? Rogers and Bell are also the ones that have essentially a monopoly on our Internet and home phone as well. And guess who regulates those areas? The CRTC. Remember that article I posted a while ago about the CRTC lifting regulations on the cap Rogers and Bell are allowed to charge to the third-party, smaller ISPs? Well, it's the same companies and the same regulatory bodies who are involved. And we're about to get goosed there.
Imagine, 2 companies basically running all of a country's telecommunications. Tell me that's a good thing for the public.....
I was there on that fateful day, were you?
