TORONTO -- Uncertainty stemming from unprecedented regulatory scrutiny has been superseded by uncertainty from court challenges for Wind Mobile. And the startup carrier, which aims to fight the “big guys” and introduce “real” competition in the $16.8-billion wireless market, is not yet out of the woods.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said Tuesday the government will appeal a Federal Court decision that struck down Ottawa’s ruling that allowed Wind to launch more than a year ago. The announcement, while good news for Toronto-based company, means a new round of proceedings gumming up the carrier in costly diversions perhaps into the fall.

“We’ve got four different bodies now between Industry Canada, CRTC [the regulator], cabinet and the court with a hand in this,” said Tony Lacavera, the company’s chairman and controlling shareholder. “If I was one of the incumbents I’d be saying ‘This is great. Let’s keep them distracted, fighting with the courts, fighting with the CRTC. Meanwhile, we’ll keep dominating the market’.

“The Minister’s step was a great one to help break up that oligopoly,” Mr. Lacavera said, taking aim at Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc.’s Bell Mobility and Telus Corp., the country’s dominant operators. “We’re optimistic this will get resolved quickly.”

It may well, however, take several more months.

It was the Harper cabinet that on Dec. 11, 2009 overruled the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s determination that Wind, the brand operated by Globalive Wireless Management Corp., was foreign-owned and therefore outside Canada’s telecom laws. Cabinet, bent on introducing more players in the sector, disagreed with regulators and is now planning to argue the position to a Federal Court of Appeals judge.

“We believe that our decision was the right one for Canadian consumers and we will vigorously defend it,” Mr. Clement told reporters in Ottawa.

Regulators turned back Globalive initially because of a monolithic debt load owed to international conglomerate Orascom Telecom Holding, which also holds two-thirds of the Canadian company’s non-voting equity. Yet there are no requirements on debt while the firm is structured to give Mr. Lacavera and other Canadian interests control “in fact,” cabinet and the company have long said.

Wind, which has attracted 250,000 or so subscribers across the country to date, has also secured between $200-million and $300-million in additional financing from hardware vendors, diluting Orascom’s overall influence, Mr. Lacavera said.

“We’ve been working aggressively to resolve the concentration of debt issue and have made significant progress,” he said.

The Federal Court motion was originally brought by Public Mobile Inc. and Telus Corp., challenging cabinet’s authority and rationale to overrule regulators. Both companies declined comment when reached Tuesday.

Globalive is said to be weighing an appeal of its own, but is hesitant to as cabinet prepares its case. Cabinet must file a motion for appeal and await a hearing, a process that if not expedited could keep the carrier in limbo for months.

An alternative option for Wind would be to petition the CRTC for a fresh review of its structure in light of the new financial and operating changes.

The company’s preferred outcome is to have the appeals court expedite the hearings and make a decision by late spring — but the scenario is anything but certain, not least as a spring election looms.

One default advantage to a drawn out process is more time. If things do drag on, Wind will continue to grow, itself a bulwark to its survival, some analysts said.

“The bigger Wind gets, arguably the more difficult it is to shut down,” Dvai Ghose of Canaccord Genuity said.

Ultimately, he suggested cabinet can address the faults Justice Hughes found in its original decision, and win the appeal. “We assume that the process will eventually allow Globalive to operate under its current structure,” the analyst said.

Financial Post with file from Paul Vieira

jasturgeon@nationalpost.com