Communications watchdog OpenMedia.ca is calling on the Canadian government to stop the "Big Three" cell phone companies from elbowing competitors out of the market.

The group's latest campaign, "Stop the Cell Phone Squeeze," encourages Canadians to write the federal industry minister in protest of efforts to exclude independent phone companies.

"We have reports that lobbyists from the Big Three are working overtime to manipulate the government," OpenMedia.ca executive director Steve Anderson said in a release. "This is all part of a multi-faceted campaign for a command-and-control internet and communications system. Canadians need to come together to stand against this."

The email-writing push targets service providers Rogers, Telus and Bell, which owns CTV.

OpenMedia.ca says that the crusade was developed partly in response to Rogers' "I want my LTE" campaign against limiting bids for access to the 700MHz wireless frequency in an auction later this year. In the last auction, Rogers was barred from bidding on a certain portion of the spectrum that was reserved for smaller wireless companies.

In attempt to prevent a repeat, the communications giant has started its own Twitter push and is asking customers to direct tweets at Industry Ministry Christian Paradis reading "Don't slow Canada down. Please support a fair and open spectrum auction so we can all have #LTE."

But OpenMedia.ca says that if Rogers is successful, one of the only safeguards preventing a cell phone oligopoly will be shattered.

"This would kill the few independent mobile options we have. That means increased prices and even worse customer service," Anderson said.

Telus representatives told CTV News that the company would support a cap on how much spectrum each company can buy in the action, but Rogers and Bell are still pushing for an entirely open bidding process.

Lindsay Meredith, a marketing professor at Simon Fraser University, says that Canadians already pay some of the highest rates for cell phones in the world, and restricting smaller players from the market could make the problem worse.

According to a 2010 New America Foundation survey of cell phone rates in 11 major countries, Canada was tied with the U.K. for the costliest monthly postpaid voice plans.

However, he cautions that if the government decides to make space for independent companies in this year's bidding process, there should be one crucial condition.

"The poison pill you want to insert in each of these little buggers is a condition to get into the party that he will never be allowed to merge with either Telus, Rogers, Shaw or Bell," he told CTV News.

"We don't want to see you selling out."

A decision on the government's auction policy for the 700 MHz frequency is expected within weeks.

With files from CTV British Columbia's St. John Alexander