Christian Paradis, Canada’s minister of industry, has announced a spectrum licence transfer framework, the latest move to boost the country’s strategy of achieving four viable cellcos in each region, creating competition for the established triumvirate ‘ Bell Canada BCE, Telus and Rogers.
Under the proposals, all spectrum transfer requests will be reviewed to guard against any that would result in ‘undue spectrum concentration, and therefore diminish competition’. Rules already in place applied these criteria to block the attempt by Telus to acquire one of the three start-ups which acquired spectrum during the AWS auction, Mobilicity. Verizon is now understood to be interested in acquiring Mobilicity and/or VimpelCom’s Wind Canada unit, while the third new entrant, Public Wireless, has been acquired by Thomvest Seed Capital.
The new rules apply to all licence transfers, including those arising from option agreements, such as Rogers’ already-agreed options to acquire unused mobile frequencies across several regions from Videotron and from cableco Shaw, in 2014. This could be blocked under the regulations (Paradis has already stated he does not support it).
The new framework appears to make it harder for the big three operators to acquire unused licences or smaller players’ spectrum, but there are no new obstacles to outside investors doing so, which could boost Verizon’s plans.
GSMA Intelligence says the big three hold about 88% of the mobile market while the rest is divided among about 15 small players, some struggling to survive and certainly in no position to make significant investments in new infrastructure and services.