Wireless competition in Canada
Shaw Communications retained Eric Emch to analyze the Canadian mobile wireless market in the context of a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) proceeding that is reviewing mobile wireless services and considering possible regulatory interventions. Dr. Emch submitted two expert reports describing how wireless competition in Canada has evolved in recent years and how a proposed broad mandate requiring that facilities-based carriers share their networks with virtual carriers risks undercutting facilities-based competition, particularly from recent facilities-based entrants. In its own independent submissions to the CRTC, the Canadian Competition Bureau reached many of the same conclusions. In April 2021, the CRTC published its findings, declining to implement a broad network sharing mandate and citing Dr. Emch's report in concluding that such a mandate would harm competition by harming investment incentives of smaller facilities-based carriers.