‘We are not the same,’ Telus exec says on leaving CWTA

Telus Corp. has pulled out of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), the main trade association and lobbying group for companies associated with the mobile-communications industry. Ted Woodhead, vice-president of regulatory affairs at Telus, said his company helped found the CWTA in the 1980s to promote the wireless industry and that goal has been reached. “You don’t really need to promote wireless anymore,” he said in a phone interview. “It promotes itself. It’s part of the terra firma of everybody’s life.” Woodhead said the association’s role had changed from promotion to speaking for the industry on various issues. However, he said, there is such a variety in the kind of companies in the wireless industry, in terms of size and how established they are, that its range of viewpoints are hard to synthesize into a coherent message coming from one representative group. Woodhead cited the wireless code as an example, noting that while Telus supported the implementation of a national code, other carriers did not. “Where you can’t get consensus, the association’s ability to actually advocate becomes less effective in my mind because it really has to water down any kind of message so that it reflects something for everyone,” Woodhead said. He added: “We are not the same as Bell and Rogers, and we are not the same as any of these other guys. We have a unique story to tell and we think we’re better placed to tell it to our customers and to stakeholders and to government.” Telecom analyst Jean-Francois Mezei of Vaxination Informatique said the withdrawal was a “PR move” by Telus. "The audience is James Moore and the CRTC, because those are the two who are going to decide how to regulate the industry. They can basically pre-empt the argument that they're working together ." Mezei said the image of the big three working together was hurting the big carriers in the eyes of the government. Moore has repeatedly spoken about the need for more competition in the wireless industry, and it was the threat of future regulation that had convinced Telus that the better path forward was to go it alone, Mezei said. Woodhead said Telus would continue to co-operate with the CWTA on certain industry initiatives. The company will continue participating in several administrative programs run by the CWTA including the cellphone recycling program, the short-code program for commercial texting and wireless Amber Alerts, among several others, CWTA spokesman Marc Choma said in an email. Choma said the group was “disappointed” in Telus’ decision. “As a long-serving member of the association, Telus has contributed strongly over the years to advancing wireless industry growth, innovation and consumer services,” he said. “CWTA would be pleased to welcome Telus back as a full-time member in the future should its plans change.” When reached for comment, the two remaining incumbent carriers in the CWTA had differing responses to the Telus exit. “We’ve been reviewing our options and we’ll make a decision that’s right for our customers,” said Patricia Trott, a spokeswoman for Rogers. Marie-Eve Francoeur, a spokeswoman for Bell, said the company had “no plans for any change.” Mezei said the withdrawal raises questions about the future of the CWTA. “It's likely going to result in CWTA changing its mandate to one of coordinating specific efforts where they don’t appear anticompetitive,” he said. “They're probably going to drop the lobbying aspect. If they become more of a neutral body, they may get back Telus and the others.” Officials from Bell and Rogers did return requests for comments on Telus’ decision to leave the CWTA. Three new entrants,Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Wind Mobile, left the CWTA in April last year, with Wind chief regulatory officer Simon Lockie alleging at the time that the association had a “consistent bias” in favour of the incumbents. Telus bought Public Mobile late last year. — With reporting by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca and reporting and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

‘We are not the same,’ Telus exec says on leaving CWTA

News | February 28, 2014

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‘We are not the same,’ Telus exec says on leaving CWTA

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