Two of the country’s newest cellphone companies are urging federal lawmakers to lift foreign ownership rules preventing access to international capital.

Removing the barriers would “sustain competition” within a domestic wireless market increasingly central to the economy, infant carriers Globalive and Public Mobile told a special parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Today Tony Lacavera, Chairman of Globalive and WIND Mobile took the stage and spoke at the Empire Club of Canada. His topic was called the “21st Century Canadian Telecommunications: The Way Forward” and basically addressed the industry, his challenges and Canada’s opportunity.

There was obviously much talk about foreign ownership and how the Big Three (Rogers, Bell and TELUS) have his organization on their radar and doing what they can to call them anti-Canadian. Lacavera stated “To call us anything but Canadian would, quite simply, be untrue. But, that’s the kind of fear-mongering that the incumbents would like to seed in order to continue their anti-competitive hold on the Canadian telecom market. A market that has under served Canadian consumers for a decade and one that has been hamstrung by a national oligopoly and provincial duopolies.”

While it’s been a “pretty cozy ride” for the three major providers in Canada’s mobile market – Rogers, Bell and Telus – consumers have consistently got the short end of the stick, according to Globealive Communications Corp. chairman Anthony Lacavera.

Speaking at the Empire Club of Canada, Thursday, Lacavera blasted the Big Three for practices that limit competition and negatively affect consumers, “including long term contracts with unreasonably high rates and silly nonsense fees for fictitious network services.”

Globalive Wireless Management Corp.’s chairman and chief executive officer said Thursday that rivals of his company’s new Wind Mobile wireless service are “fear-mongering” with complaints about its foreign investors.

Anthony Lacavera, who heads Canada’s newest national wireless carrier, said Thursday that the industry’s three established players – Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. are trying to stifle competition within the country and are using Wind Mobile as a target.

“The incumbents are using this very important question of Canadian sovereignty and culture… in order to actually create an issue with respect to telecom’s infrastructure,” Mr. Lacavera said in an interview after delivering a speech at the Empire Club in Toronto.

Canada’s newest wireless company Wind Mobile accused Shaw Communications Inc. of making a “racial slur” during a conference call with financial analysts when two of its senior executives, including chief executive officer Jim Shaw, alluded to the upstart as a “camel.”

Wind Mobile’s Canadian competitors have long raised questions about the nationality of the company, which is backed by Egyptian-based Orascom Telecom Holding SAE.

Shaw Communications Inc. is on the defensive after allegedly “derogatory” comments were made by chief executive Jim Shaw and other senior executives toward upstart wireless carrier Wind Mobile and its Egyptian partner, global operator Orascom Telecom Holding SAE.

Low-cost wireless carrier Globalive Communication Corp said it could get by without securing the several hundred million dollars in new financing it is currently discussing with potential backers as it aggressively looks to expand its Canadian market share.

Wireless upstarts face a daunting task: Finance and build a network of their own, while taking on the big incumbents. In some cases, it just makes sense to team up with a rival Telecom reporter Iain Marlow reports

These ads by Clean Sheet Communications for Wind Mobile might have taken on a whole new meaning this week after a report from SeaBoard Group slammed the upstart cell provider owned by Globalive Communications Corp. for a hasty launch, spotty network deployment and weak wireless coverage. Is the marketing effort full of hot air? The Ad Missions panel takes a look.

Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement said he’s confident the governing Conservative Party’s plans to open up the country’s telecommunications industry to foreign competition will get support from opposition lawmakers.