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Here’s a reality check of some of the claims from both corners.

THE BIG THREE:

The government will let a U.S. giant “piggyback” on the networks Canadian companies have built over decades.

It is true that the government’s policy allows competitors to access existing networks, but a company like Verizon, or any other provider, will have to pay for the privilege. Industry Canada has rules in place that require wireless providers to share cellphone towers and other cellular sites with other carriers and allow competitors’ subscribers to roam on their networks. The policy requires carriers to negotiate access based on commercial terms, an issue that has at times been fraught as the country’s current cellular players tangled over agreements and startup carriers complained of lengthy delays in negotiation with the incumbents. Mr. Moore said in an interview with the Financial Post Tuesday that the government is not considering implementing a system of mandated rates for access to cell sites and roaming fees.

Ottawa is letting foreign companies buy Canadian startups that the big three are barred from even bidding on.

Wind Mobile and Mobilicity, the two companies Verizon has looked at acquiring, purchased wireless spectrum in a 2008 auction subject to a “set-aside” for new entrants to the market. Those licences came with a five-year ban on sale to the country’s incumbent players and Telus tested the government’s resolve on this when it tried to buy Mobilicity for $380-million earlier this year. Industry Canada blocked the deal as the moratorium on Mobilicity’s licences is not up until next year. Through a new policy announced in June, Ottawa has strongly hinted it will deny such transfers even after those licence terms expire, saying it plans to review all transfers and will block deals that lead to an “undue concentration” of spectrum in the hands of one party. Without a bright-line test for what that means, the government will be able to use its discretion to block the big three — which together control about 85% of the country’s available spectrum — from acquiring spectrum outside of auctions. Meanwhile, last year’s new foreign ownership rules for the sector would indeed permit a company like Verizon to purchase the debt-ridden startup, and its larger peer Wind Mobile.