Government appeals Wind Mobile ruling

The federal government of Canada is appealing a court ruling which overturned its decision to allow the December 2009 launch of Egyptian-backed cellco Globalive Wireless (Wind Mobile) under its existing ownership structure. The Federal Court on 4 February reversed the cabinet’s approval of Wind’s ownership (a decision which itself reversed a ruling from the telecoms regulator, the CRTC), and gave Globalive 45 days to comply with foreign ownership laws. Industry Minister Tony Clement confirmed: ‘The Harper Government will be appealing the Court’s ruling. We believe that our decision was the right one for Canadian consumers and we will vigorously defend it. Globalive is a Canadian company and meets the Canadian ownership and control requirements under the Telecommunications Act. Globalive should therefore be able to continue to offer service in the wireless telecommunications market.’ Anthony Lacavera, chairman of Wind Mobile, added: ‘We are pleased that the government has decided to appeal the Federal Court’s decision … From the beginning, Industry Canada and then Cabinet maintained, with a full knowledge and understanding of the facts of our structure, that we are fully compliant with the Telecom Act rules, and we are pleased that the government is vigorously defending its decision.’