Orascom vs. Canada - This time it's personal

Orascom Telecom, the largest telecommunications operator in the Arab world, had a tough time trying to make an impact in Canada.

The company helped financially fund the purchase of a large swath of Canada's national spectrum a few years ago during a wireless auction for C$442 million (Dh1.626 billion). But due to the country's arcane foriegn investment laws, it was finally able to launch a wireless service in December.

For the record, Orascom owns a 65 per cent equity stake in Globalive Communications and has provided $440m in loans but yields voting rights. With only two-thirds of the country owning a mobile, the investment could become a very profitable one if Orascom plays its cards right.

While the new operator - branded as Wind Mobile - apparently has had some growing pains, some of its rivals have begun to make disparaging remarks about its parent company.

Some say the line was crossed, however, during one exchange, with some branding comments from [Jim] Shaw [the chief executive of Shaw Communications] and president Peter Bissonnette as distasteful and insensitive at minimum, or worse, tinged with racial undertones.

The comments remind me of a quote Mr Shaw made earlier in an interview I had with him. At my former job at a national Canadian newspaper,

when Mr Shaw rang me up out of the blue and provided me with one of the best quotes I've ever reported:

"Prove you're Canadian [and] post a letter of credit for the amount you build that isn't from the Bank of Tijuana. Let's make sure you've got the money. Would the government of Canada sue the Bank of Cairo if those Egyptian guys don't go through?"

While it's not as incinderary as Mr Shaw's recent remarks, it still goes to show that Orascom still has quite a way to go in one of the world's last telecoms frontiers.