700 MHz auction results coming Wednesday

Industry Minister James Moore will announce the results of the government’s 700 MHz spectrum auction Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa, the federal government said Tuesday.

The auction opened Jan. 14 and was a chance for wireless incumbents and new entrants to get access to new airwaves that would allow them to deliver the latest gadgets at the fastest speeds.

Moore backs down from four-carrier policy: CP

The Canadian Press reported that Industry Minister James Moore has backed off on the government’s commitment to having a fourth strong wireless carrier in every region of the country.

In an interview Wednesday, Moore said: “Whatever dynamic emerges that the marketplace can support, the marketplace will decide that.”

Videotron wireless subs hit 500,000

Quebecor Inc. subsidiary Videotron now has 500,000 wireless customers, the company said in a press release.

New spectrum transfer rules not an extension of moratorium, government says

Industry Canada has not extended a five-year moratorium preventing Canada’s largest wireless providers from acquiring their smaller competitors’ airwaves, though it never said they would be able to obtain that “set-aside” spectrum after the moratorium expired, the federal government said in newly filed court documents.

Rogers asks court to dismiss Telus challenge of spectrum-transfer rules

Rogers Communications Inc. is urging the Federal Court to dismiss Telus Corp.’s request for a review of Industry Canada’s new spectrum transfer rules and how they would apply to the potential acquisition of new-entrant wireless carriers, court documents show.

Spectrum auction withdrawal a ‘headwind’ to surging Wind, experts say

Wind Mobile’s chief executive says the company is surging in the absence of stable new entrant competitors, though experts warn it will face a “headwind” soon without access to 700 MHz spectrum.

“I was very happy to see the growth of Wind in Q4 without smaller competitors Mobilicity and Public [Mobile Inc.] out in the market,” Wind CEO Anthony Lacavera said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

“We certainly have emerged as the fourth carrier,” he added.

Auction 2014 — What to expect

The long-anticipated 700 MHz spectrum auction begins Tuesday, Jan 14. Among the rules set out by Industry Canada, each of the three incumbents, Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and BCE Inc., are each only allowed to acquire one of the four prime blocks of spectrum in each of 14 designated regions across the country, which leaves at least one block open to another bidder.

Mobilicity asks court to rule on spectrum transfers, cites government ambiguity

Mobilicity is asking the Ontario Superior Court to consider whether it could approve a transfer of the new entrant provider’s spectrum licences as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, and in the absence of an Industry Canada decision on any proposed spectrum transfer, court documents show.

Telus fights 700 MHz spectrum cap at Federal Court

The federal industry minister has no right to determine the “eligibility criteria” for companies to participate in spectrum auctions in the absence of formal rules from cabinet, lawyers representing Telus Corp. argued in Federal Court on Tuesday.

Wind Mobile wants Mobilicity’s spectrum for LTE network: Lacavera

Globalive Wireless Management Corp., operator of Wind Mobile, is looking at buying Mobilicity because it needs more spectrum in order to roll out an LTE network, Wind CEO Anthony Lacavera said.

“Spectrum is the real estate of our business, as you know,” Lacavera said in a phone interview. “We have kind of used the real estate we’ve got, and we’ve deployed 3G services on that. We now need a new chunk of real estate to roll out 4G, or LTE services.”

Despite challenges, 5G wireless could arrive by 2020

Though all the possibilities that 4G wireless technology presents still haven’t been fully explored, industry experts gathered in Ottawa on Wednesday to look ahead at the next generation of wireless networks and discuss what 5G mobility will be like.

The commercial availability of 5G networks is expected around 2020, Wen Tong, an Ottawa-based fellow with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., said at the 5G@Canada Roundtable, organized by the global Chinese telecom company.