Phone giant Telus Corp. is applauding the CRTC for denying upstart mobile phone provider Globalive a domestic carrier licence because of its Egyptian financial backing.

‘We don’t think the CRTC had any choice or latitude under the laws of Canada to make any other decision,’ said Michael Hennessy, Telus SVP of regulatory and government affairs, in a statement in the wake of the decision.

The CRTC ruled Thursday that the management and board of directors proposed by Globalive fell short of Canadian foreign ownership rules as Egyptian telecom giant Orascom was to hold most of its equity and debt.

Globalive chairman Anthony Lacavera in his own statement said the CRTC ruling represented ‘a bad day for Canadians and wireless competition in Canada.’

Lacavera hinted Globalive, which intends to launch its Canadian mobile phone offering as Wind Mobile, will pursue the only option remaining: an appeal to the federal cabinet to have the CRTC decision reversed or revised.

‘Wind Mobile will be delayed in becoming Canada’s newest competitive wireless operator in over a decade,’ he said.

Globalive said it had the earlier backing of Industry Canada, and was not ready to throw in the towel after establishing an infrastructure and mobile phone network.

‘Wind Mobile had planned to launch in the coming weeks. We have pulled together an excellent team of more than 500 people and had built a strong network and operation across the country. We are ready to bring competition to the market.’ added Wind Mobile CEO Ken Campbell.

‘We will be evaluating our options on how to proceed,’ he added.

Telus’ Hennessy said his company was not against Ottawa lifting foreign ownership controls on domestic media companies. The phone company demanded only a level playing field when it came to tapping foreign capital.

RBC Capital Markets media analyst Jonathan Allen said approval of the Globalive bid by the federal cabinet would ‘put us one step closer to full elimination of foreign ownership rules — a positive for all stocks in the long run,’ he wrote in an investment note.