Canada is considering a plan to allow more foreign ownership of telecom companies, a move that would allow non-Canadians to own 100 percent of firms that have a market share of 10 percent or less, the Globe and Mail reports. Current law restricts direct and indirect foreign investment in telecom companies to a combined total of 46.7 percent. Higher foreign ownership could improve small players' access to international capital and help them better compete with entrenched incumbents. The latest entrants, Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity, which won radio frequencies in the 2008 auction, have managed to bring down prices in the industry, but have gained little market share. The government is also working on a new spectrum auction. According to the newspaper's sources, it is not expected to reserve spectrum for smaller players, as it did in 2008, but instead cap each bidder at 10MHz of spectrum. A proposal titled "Increasing Competition and Choice in the Telecommunications Sector" was on the agenda to be discussed by a key committee of cabinet ministers who met on 22 November, the paper said. Should the proposal proceed, it's expected the government would announce the foreign-ownership plans first, and then unveil the auction design possibly a month later.
