OTTAWA - The Federal Court of Appeal wiped away a cloud over Wind Mobile on Wednesday when it backed the federal cabinet's decision to allow the mobile phone company to launch its wireless service over the objections of a federal regulator.
The ruling overturns a lower court decision ruled the government overstepped its authority when it allowed the company to go ahead over the objections of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
"The divergence between the CRTC and Governor in Council (cabinet) comes in the factual inferences, or conclusions, the Governor in Council drew from the evidence," Justice Edgar Sexton wrote in the unanimous decision.
"The Governor in Council simply had a different appreciation of things and that appreciation was rational and defensible."
Canadian federal law requires telecommunications companies to be majority owned and controlled by Canadians.
The CRTC had raised concerns that the vast majority of the debt owed by Wind Mobile's corporate parent, Globalive, was held by an Egyptian company.
In addition to the debt, Egyptian company Orascom holds a 65 per cent equity stake in Globalive, but it does not hold voting control and holds only a minority of the seats on the company's board.
Globalive chairman Anthony Lacavera was thrilled with the appellate court's decision.
"Wind is here to stay and we will continue to bring Canadians the first real choice in wireless in over a decade," Lacavera wrote in an email.
Globalive was one of several new entrants into the mobile phone market in Canada. The federal court challenge had been brought by rival Public Mobile, also a recent entrant.
Ottawa has indicated that it plans to allow greater foreign ownership in the telecom sector, but so far has not made changes.
Last May, the government outlined three possible options -- removing all restrictions, increasing the limit of foreign investment from the current 20 to 49 per cent or lifting restrictions for carriers with less than 10 per cent market share.
