Q&A: Telus answers critics of Big 3 telecom 'Fair for Canada' campaign

Last week, CBCNews.ca ran a story that asked the question:Is the Big 3 telecom 'Fair for Canada' campaign working?

The campaignbyBell, Rogers and Telus, seeks to rally Canadiansagainst anyfederal government action that would give U.S.-based companies like Verizon Communications an unfair advantage to bid on valuable wireless spectrum.

The campaign has sparked some negative reaction online and some analysts have questionedits effectiveness.

But Josh Blair, executive vice-president ofhuman resources and chief corporate officer for Telus, says that overall it's been a success.

This interview was conducted last week, beforeVerizon's CEO Lowell McAdam told Bloombergthat Verizon isn't currently interested in making a move into Canada's wireless market.

Hespoke to CBC's MarkGollomabout the campaign, its critics and some of the negative attitudes toward the top three cellular providers.

CBC NEWS: How do you think the campaign is going?

Blair: When I step back and look at our broader campaign and all the broader vehicles, discussions, dialogues that are occurring, were seeing a lot of success overall in terms of the campaign.

If you look at the two polls that have come out on the topic,both of them have said Canadians do want more competition, they would welcome foreign competition into Canada, and thats Teluss position also. But they also said interestingly that Canadians believe the spectrum auction should be fair.

If you look at the Nanos poll, 81 per cent of Canadians said the spectrum auction shouldnt favour foreign or domestic companies. And if you look at the Foreign Research poll, 65 per cent of Canadians said the auction shouldnt favour foreign or domestic companies. So I think those are both pretty powerful third party assessments of what is the voice of Canadians on this issue.

CBC News: One telecom analyst, Iain Grant from the Seaboard Group, said the campaign has been "one of the least effective lobbying/PR campaigns in history" in part because you havent changed the minds of the two most important people involved in the decision making process: the industry minister and the prime minister.

Blair: Our view is that the most important people in the process are Canadians and to say this all just comes down to two people I think is an incorrect statement. I think it comes down to whats right for the population of Canada and thats why were undertaking our expensive effort.

There are so many groups coming forward, there are so many voices coming forward, theres polls coming forward saying[they]welcome more competitionlet it be foreign but let it be fair.

CBC News: But do you deny theres been a negative reaction or a backlash. One analyst, Mark Blevis, looked at the online reaction and found it has been pretty negative toward the campaign. In terms of average Canadians, there does seem to be a segment that is responding negatively to the campaign.

Blair: Yes, Im not going to sit here and tell you theres been no negative reaction specifically to the advertising campaign itself and I think weve seen in respect to the advertising campaign feedback on both sides of the spectrum. For me, I just say, lets take a step back and look at how the overall outreach is working and Id say the two polls say that the everyday Canadian very much wants more competition but also very much wants that competition to be through a fair fight.

CBC News: It seems that there are a lot of people out there that may not even be thinking about whether your argument is legitimate or credible. They just have a negative reaction when it comes to the Big 3.

Blair: When you see negative reaction toward a company or a group of companies, it says youve got work to do on your customer service. At Telus, we know were not perfect on this front. And in fact going back to 2009, we said weve got to really focus on this andput[ting]customers first was what we adopted as our rally cry across the company. But weve made a lot of changes.

CBC News: Why do you think there is that perception that when it comes to customer service, the Big 3 are failing?

Blair: From Teluss perspective that perception is melting away over time. Weve got to the point where we actually measure our customer service by the likelihood of our clients to recommend us to their friends and family and our measure on that ground has gone up significantly over the past few years to a point where 72 per cent of our clients would recommend us to their friends and families. So it's something were working hard to change over time. Theres history there that all telecos need to overcome.

CBC News: Does it surprise you that some people might be reacting negatively because they feel in the past they havent be treated well as customers and now youre asking them for support?

Blair: No. Were eyes wide open on this at Telus. We explicitly know were not perfect. We know we need to get better. We know we have history that goes back decades of not having customers first as our number one mantra in the company. Weve changed that at Telus over the past four years and were working hard on that.But to say that there are individuals out there who have had negative reaction, we fully understand.

CBC News: Labellingthe campaignFair for CanadaI think there are some out there that might think this isnt about Canada andabout whats fair for Canada. This is about whats in the best interests for the Big 3.

Blair: If you look at the positions were putting forward, were not putting positions forward that would just help Telus, Bell and Rogers. And I think you could then critique us if that was the case and say, "This is just about the Big 3, this isnt about Canada." But the positions were putting forward would also help SaskTel, they would help Videotron, they would help Eastlink, they help [MTS], companies like Public Mobile if they arent the ones to be gobbled up by Verizon. I think it shows we truly are putting forward a policy that says be fair to Canada and to foreign entities. But one understands why assumptions are formed too.

This interview has been edited and condensed.