Earlier this year Canadian regulators the CRTC, who frequently fail to protect smaller Canadian ISPs from mega-carrier anti-competitive behavior, protected those same mega-carriers by blocking a new competitor named Globalive from entering the Canadian Wireless market. According to the CRTC, Globalive simply wasn't Canadian enough to do business in Canada and an old and sometimes enforced law, lobbied for by Canada's incumbent companies, that prevents any company from doing business in Canada that wasn't majority-owned by Canadians.

Such faux-patriotism laws are used by incumbent companies in numerous markets to game the regulatory system (the same one they profess to hate) in order to protect themselves from competition. Globalive is 61% owned by Orascom, a telecom company that does ample business in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South Asia. The CRTC's ruling was obnoxious -- not only because the added competition would be good for consumers, but because Globalive had already received permission to buy Canadian spectrum and was already in the process of hiring staff and building a network.

Luckily for the carrier, Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement has reversed the regulatory decision and says that Globalive has suddenly become "Canadian enough" to do business against the nation's entrenched incumbent carriers:Clement gave no additional information as to why the ruling was being reversed, but you can assume that negative public attention played a role. The CRTCs seemingly arbitrary decision to impose restrictions on Globalive after they'd already passed an ownership test to buy spectrum doesn't help the CRTC's growing reputation as a regulatory agency that exists primarily to serve the whims of Canada's incumbent carriers.