CANADA HITS JACKPOT IN AWS AUCTION BUT STILL AWAITS NEW COMPETITOR

摘要

Incumbent carriers Rogers, Telus and BCE, which dominate the Canadian wireless business, were the major winners as the government ended an advanced wireless service auction. The auction brought in 4.25 billion Canadian dollars, nearly triple what analysts projected last year. Industry Canada auctioned licenses for 105 MHz of spectrum, including 40 MHz set aside for bidding only by a new entrant. The licenses are in the 1710-2200 MHz band. The auction began May 27 and lasted 331 rounds. The auction, a big success for Canadian regulators, means more wireless competition, Iain Grant, analyst at Seaboard, said in an interview. Regulators are 揼rinning from ear to ear,?he said. 揑t抯 roughly double to triple what most people expected.?The auction illustrates investor confidence in Canadian wireless, Grant said. 揚eople who know wireless were the ones writing the biggest checks and I think that抯 a very healthy sign,?he said. nnCanadian regulators learned from recent U.S. auctions and decided to set aside spectrum for smaller players, said Carmi Levy, an industry analyst at AR Communications. 揟he surprising thing is that a fourth national carrier has not emerged from the process ... to compete against the incumbents,?Levy said. 揈arly on it became apparent it would be the existing incumbents against a lot of small players.?With the 40 MHz set-aside, the government made room for another large competitor, he said. 揑 fully expect conversations will happen and at some point [smaller players] will pool their resources and you will have a national or a near national player emerge,?he said. Rogers Communications, Canada抯 largest wireless carrier, led bidders with 59 high bids totaling just under a billion Canadian dollars. Telus Communications also had 59 high bids, totaling almost 880 million dollars. Bell Mobility made 54 winning bids totaling about 741 million dollars.