RUSSELL, Ont. (NEWS1130) – The feds are making changes aimed at making Canada’s telecommunications industry more competitive.

The moves are designed to allow new wireless carriers into the market to compete with Rogers, Bell and Telus.

The changes, expected to come into effect in 2013, include placing limits on the upcoming wireless spectrum auction and lifting foreign investment limits on small telecom firms.

“This decision puts caps on the purchasing power of the big three telecom companies, which currently control 96 per cent of the cell phone market,” said Lindsey Pinto with OpenMedia.ca.  “It will essentially open the door to a little more competition in Canada.”

Industry Minister Christian Paradis says the move should lower cell phone bills across the country.

“Our government has taken significant action to promote competition in the wireless sector, and our decisions have helped to reduce mobile wireless prices for Canadian families by 10 per cent since 2008,” said Paradis.

Telecom watchdogs like OpenMedia.ca and the SeaBoard Group say Canadians have some of the most expensive wireless bills in the world.

Pinto questions whether the steps being taken by the federal government will change that.

“We have been pushing for much stronger measures for the government to take a much bolder approach because our telecom market is so broken and because there is so little wireless competition,” Pinto said.

“These caps will essentially allow for maybe one new competitor per market but will not really go the distance to make sure that independent wireless companies and new market entrants will be able to compete against the big three. It means that Canadians might have to pay a little bit more for wireless than basically anyone in the rest of the world.”

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