Auction to increase wireless spectrum
Far from addressing the health concerns about wireless technology that I’ve outlined in earlier posts, the Canadian government is actually increasing the ability of wireless technology to invade our atmosphere.
Next Tuesday (May 27), Industry Canada is going to auction off more bandwidth in a spectrum auction to “maximize the economic and social benefits that Canadians derive from the use of the radio frequency spectrum resource and to foster competition for this resource”.
From this I don’t detect any reticence on the part of the government to protect Canadians from the health effects of this so-called resource.
Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) Allstream is the favoured bidder . It is an offshoot of Manitoba Telephones that wants to provide nation-wide cellphone service. Working with funds provided by the Canada Pension Plan and the American equity firm, Blackstone Services, it hopes to move into a highly lucrative market that has so-far been dominated by Rogers, Bell, and Telus.
As the CBC reported in March, “Spectrum is a public resource that is managed by the government through Industry Canada. The government extracts big revenue from selling spectrum licences to cellphone companies because those licences are limited while demand is high. Canada’s cellphone industry made $12.7 billion in 2006, 95 per cent of which went to the big three providers, Rogers Communications Inc., Bell Canada Inc. and Telus Corp. Other telecommunications providers would like to offer cellphone services but can’t because they don’t have a spectrum license.
Much though I would love to see Rogers et al get their come-uppance and not be free to garner the lion’s share of business from the wireless industry, our health and the well-being of our senior citizens should be of concern to Canadians for another reason. With the CPP invested in the wireless industry the fund could be liable to losses from lawsuits because of illness and disability emanating from cellphone use.
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